Ed Fortress 2
by The Wanderer of Insanity
Summary: First fanfic. When the kids of the cul-de-sac mysteriously wake up in the world of TF2, they must work with RED team to find a way home. Will the kids be up to the challenge of mercenary work?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

It was a normal day in the cul-de-sac. Three boys were setting up an energy drink stand. The tallest of the three, Ed, was wearing a green coat over a red and white striped shirt. He was doing all the physical work as he was the strongest. Looking over the blueprints was Edd, but people call him Double D. He was wearing purple shorts, a red T-shirt, and a black, baggy hat. Sitting against the fence was the unofficial leader Eddy, who was very short for his age. He was wearing a yellow shirt with one vertical red stripe and blue pants. These three teenage boys always tried to do 'scams' to make money.

"How's it going boys?" Eddy asked.

"Steady as usual Eddy," Double D replied, annoyed at his friends' constant laziness.

"Gravy," Ed randomly blurted out, as usual.

They were soon finished. It was a simple stand that most kids would use as a lemonade stand, but not the Eds.

"There we go boys," Eddy announced, "En-o-gy Drinks."

"Eddy, I think we've done this before," Double D said.

"I know and it would have worked if lumpy didn't mess it up."

"It's not Ed's fault he's so clumsy. Isn't that right Ed?"

"Yup," Ed replied, oblivious to what they were talking about.

Soon, the other kids came up to see what scheme they were planning this time.

"Hey didn't you dorks already try this?" Kevin asked. He was wearing black shorts, a green long sleeve shirt, and a red hat that he wore backwards. Being a stereotypical jock, he was usually a jerk to the Eds.

"Yeah, and so what if we did, Shovelchin?" Eddy spat back angrily. "We didn't even get a chance to sell anything because of Ed, so we're trying again."

"Rolf thinks we should give the Ed boys a chance at this, how you say, 'scam,'" the tall, blue-haired Rolf. He was a first-generation immigrant who normally talked strange. Like Eddy, he was wearing a yellow shirt, but the red stripe was horizontal.

"Fine, but this had better be good," Kevin said, feeling defeated. He paid the twenty-five cent price and took a cup of the 'En-o-gy Drink'. As he drank it, the other kids looked expectantly at him.

"Well, is it any good?" asked Ed's little sister, Sarah. She was wearing blue pants, a pink tank top, and had red-hair to match her fiery temper. Standing next to her was her best friend Jimmy. He was a quiet boy who wore a blue sweater, khakis, and had his blonde hair in a curl.

"Yeah, Plank wants to know," said Johnny, a shaved kid with a white T-shirt and blue pants. Plank was his best friend, a wooden board with a face drawn on with crayon. Johnny was the only one who could understand Plank.

After Kevin finished, he went wide-eyed with surprise. "This is pretty good," Kevin said. "I'll have another one."

The other kids were shocked at Kevin's reaction. They had never heard him compliment the Eds' work.

"Let me try guys," said the blonde Nazz. She wore her usual white tank top over a black T-shirt and purple shorts. She was the most popular girl at school and sought out by almost every guy. She paid for one and took a sip. "This is amazing."

Soon everyone was getting a cup of the drink. The Eds were raking in the money, until it started to rain and everyone ran home. The Eds stayed behind upset that the rain ruined their 'scam.'

"That's strange," Double D said. "The weather is supposed to be sunny all week."

"Well, it ain't now, is it?" Eddy grumbled. "I'm going home. See you guys later."

"Bye Eddy," Ed and Double D said. The three then split up and went home.

Later, thunder could be heard and lightning streaked the sky. Double D was in his room reading a book on mechanics. He started to feel a tingling sensation in his stomach. _It must be from the drink _he thought, remembering that he had some of the 'Ed-o-gy Drink'. It was at that moment, lightning struck Double D's home. He felt a powerful electric surge overcome him, yet he felt no pain. This was terrifying to him because he had no idea what would happen next. He started to become weak and faint. The last thing he remembered before going unconscious, was reading his book.


	2. Meet the Team

**Chapter 2 **

Double D groaned as he regained consciousness. When he opened his eyes, his vision was blurred but he could see enough to know he was not home. He was in a building with red wood walls and a ground floor.

"What happened?" a familiar voice groaned.

"Eddy!" Double D exclaimed as he turned around to see his friend, semi-unconscious, along with the other kids of the cul-de-sac.

"Double D," Eddy complained, "what are you doing in my room?" He obviously hadn't seen where he was now.

"You might want to look again."

"Huh?" Eddy said as he opened his eyes. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure, let's wake up the others and see if we can find someone to tell us."

The two woke up the others and were greeted by much groaning and questions as to where they were and how they got here. When Double D asked them if anything strange happened to them last night, they all said the same thing, they had a strange feeling in their stomach, lightning flashed, and they woke up here.

"Interesting, let's figure out how we got here later, for now let's figure out where we are," Double D suggested. Nobody objected so they were off to find some clue as to where they are.

"Hey, anybody else here that?" Sarah asked.

"Hear what?" Kevin asked.

"Listen." Double D said. They all listened intently and could hear voices.

"Thanks for the help out there doc," one of the voices said. "For once I wasn't killed."

"It was mine pleasure Scout," another voice said another voice. This one had a German accent. "You were able to help me get ze Ubercharge ready for Heavy."

"Don't count me out of this, you two," a third man with a southern accent said.

"Yeah, thanks Engi, your sentry stopped that Heavy from pumping me full of lead." The first man said.

"They seem to be nice enough to help us out," Double D said. "Let's go ask them where we are."

When they approached the three men, they looked different then they had thought they would. One looked to be in his early 20s, wore a red shirt, a baseball cap, and a headset. The second was wearing a lab coat, red rubber gloves, and had a strange device strapped to his back. The third looked like a farmer with overalls, but was carrying a wrench and wore a hardhat.

"Excuse me gentlemen," Double D called out to them.

The three men turned to look at them and were surprised to see a group of kids here.

"Who are you chumps and what are you doing here?" the first man said.

"My name is Edd but with two Ds so my friends call me Double D," he explained. "These are my friends, Ed, Eddy, Johnny, Sarah, Jimmy, Kevin, Rolf, and Nazz. We neither know where we are or how we got here so we were wondering if you would be so kind as to help us."

"Sorry, but we have vetter zings to do zan help children zat we just met," the second said.

"Now hold on there," the third said, "There's something I like about these kids. Maybe we can help them."

"Yo hardhat, we're mercenaries, not charity workers," the first man said.

"Mercenaries?" Jimmy asked.

"They're bounty hunters! Like Boba Fett, Jimmy," Ed replied.

"Wait, you mean, as in killing people?!" Nazz exclaimed.

"Yeah we do that sort of thing, but only when we get paid, so you're safe, for now," the first man said.

"Now don't be scaring 'em Scout," the third man said. "We could help you, but we'll have to talk to our 'co-workers' and our employer and see if we can work something out about helping you. Being a merc's a full-time job, you know."

"Why of course," Double D said. "Do you have any names we could refer you by?"

"Oh, now where are our manners, we do have names but we prefer to go by our mercenary class name. I'm Engineer, and this is Scout and Medic."

"S'up," Scout greeted.

"Guten Tag," Medic said.

"Why don't you go talk to the other mercenaries about this matter," Edd suggested.

"Yeah, the sooner, the better," Eddy whined.

"Might as well now, we always celebrate a victory together," Scout said.

"All right," Engineer replied. "You kids follow us to the respawn area."

"Respawn area?" Sarah asked.

"It's complicated, let's leave it at zat," Medic explained.

The kids followed the three men through a series of corridors leading up to a doorway resembling that of a garage door.

"Vait here," Medic instructed. He and the other two men went through the door. From the brief glimpse of the inside, the kids could see that the room had a tiled floor, a metal locker, and saw 6 other people inside. It was about 10 minutes before they were invited inside to hear their decision. They were able to get a better look on the inside and saw that one of them was a man dressed like a hunter, another man wearing a bandolier of bullets and was cleaning a minigun, the third man was dressed in a red uniform and had a steel helmet on, the fourth was in a full-body asbestos suit with a gas mask on so it was difficult to determine the gender of that person, the fourth was passed out in the corner, wearing pipe bombs on his vest, and empty beer bottles littered the floor around him, and the last man was in a fancy suit with a ski mask on.

"Well? Are you gonna help us out or not?" Eddy asked annoyed.

"We will mate," the hunter said with an Austrailian accent, "but only if you show us some respect. It's bad enough we have to work with Scout."

"Hey!" Scout said. "At least I'm where the action is, unlike you."

"See what I mean, no respect."

"Thank you," Double D said, "if there's any way we can repay you for your kindness, we'll gladly help."

"We were talking about that," Engineer said, "we thought that if we help you, you would work for RED while you're here."

"Red?" Sarah asked, "As in the color?"

"No," Medic replied, "Reliable Excavation Demolition, it'z ze company ve vork vor. You'll become mercenaries like us."

"What!" the kids shouted.

"Now don't worry, when we kill, it only stalls that person from helping. They come back to life in a few seconds, for some odd reason," Engineer assured them. "The same thing happens to us, we get killed and after a bit, we come back to life in a room like this, hence the name 'respawn' area."

"Well, I guess that's okay so long as we don't permanently kill someone," Double D said. "We'll need some time to think this over."

"But of course," the man in the suit said with a French accent. "We understand how difficult a decision can be for such kids. Please, take all the time you need."

The kids of the cul-de-sac then huddled together to make their decision.

"I don't think we should take this offer," Jimmy said.

"Why not?" Rolf asked. "We would become warriors and bask in the glory of conquering our foes."

"I'm with Jimmy, guys," Nazz said. "This will be dangerous and totally not cool."

"Are you kidding?" Eddy asked. "This will be way better than what my big bro ever did."

"We will be like the A-team," Ed excitedly said.

"Ed, do I have to tell mom you saw that movie?" Sarah asked threateningly.

"Don't tell mom Sarah!" Ed begged.

"As much as I don't like it, we will have to accept," Double D said. "We don't know anyone else who could help us get back home."

"You're right," Kevin agreed. "All in favor of joining RED?"

"I'm in," Eddy said.

"Count me in," Double D said.

"Ed, Jimmy, and I are in this," Sarah said.

"Rolf will bask in the honor of being a, how you say, mercenary," Rolf exclaimed.

"I guess I'll join," Nazz said.

"Plank and I are in this together," Johnny said, with his buddy at his side.

The group then broke up to tell the mercenaries what they have decided. They weren't in this full-heartedly, but it may be the only way of figuring out how to get home.

"Good," the hunter said. "Engineer already told us your names, so we'll tell you what we go by. I'm Sniper."

"I am the Soldier, and you better listen up recruits, if you want our support, you will give your it you all during your tour of duty," the man in the uniform said.

"I am Heavy Weapons Guy," the large man with the bandolier of bullets said with a Russian accent. "And this, is my weapon. She weighs 250 kilogr..."

"Zat is ze Pyro," Medic rudely cut off while indicating the man in the fire-proof suit.

"Mmmph," Pyro tried to say through his mask.

"Za man passed out in ze corner is ze Demoman."

"And I am the Spy," the man in the suit said.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. The men grabbed their weapons and approached the door, in case of an unwelcomed guest. The door opened and there stood two men, one in a trench coat and was wearing a fedora so you couldn't make out much of his face, the other wore an asbestos suit like the Pyro, but without the mask. He had red hair and looked younger than Scout. He was also carrying a duffel bag full of gear. The first man opened up his trench coat to reveal a hidden TV screen in his chest, turned on, and showing a woman's face. Only the kids were surprised at this. She was an old woman who had black hair with a white stripe down the middle like a skunk and was smoking a cigarette.

"So these are my new workers," the woman said, her voice full of icy disdain. "I'm not impressed."

"And who are you supposed to be?" Kevin asked.

"Just call me the Administrator," she answered. "I am your boss and you will do as I say from now on, but this is not my main reason for a visit." She turned to the Pyro. "Pyro, I require your services elsewhere so you are being transferred. He will be your replacement." She indicated the man standing next to her.

"Mmmmph!" Pyro exclaimed.

"Don't worry, you will still do the same thing you do, just with the clone mercenaries."

He instantly relaxed at this. He didn't exactly like the others, he just liked burning things. As long as he was burning something, he was happy. The man with the television in his chest handed him a piece of paper.

"This is where you are being assigned to," the Administrator continued on. She turned to his replacement. "I hope you are as or more effective than the Pyro is."

"I am," he said.

"Good, now I have other matters to attend to." With that, the screen turned to static and the man in the trench coat left.

"Mmmmph mmmmph mmph mmmmph," Pyro mumbled. With that the Pyro left for his new assignment.

"What did she mean by 'clone mercenaries'?" Eddy asked.

"You see, we were cloned so that RED could defend our territories against BLU, the other company, but we are the original RED mercs," Engineer explained. "Now who are you?" he asked Pyro's replacement.

"Name's Jackson," the new pyro said. "And apparently, I'm not the only new guy around here, so who are you guys?"

"I'm Edd but with two Ds so my friends call me Double D and these are my friends, Ed, Eddy, Johnny, Sarah, Jimmy, Rolf, and Nazz." Double D introduced himself and the other kids.

"Well, it's always good to see young people in these kinds of profession. So do you kids have any experience with mercenary work?"

"No," Eddy said.

"Didn't think so," Jackson replied. "Looks like you've got a lot of training to do. Who's specializing in what class?"

"We haven't figured that out," Double D replied.

"Well let's figure it out," Engineer said. "Do you kids have any special talents?"

"Double D is a whizz with machines," Eddy said. "He once built a working plane out of junk that he found in our school."

"Now I don't like to brag," Double D said "but I am a straight-A student as well."

"Oh great," Scout groaned. "We got another smart guy."

"He would make a great engineer," Engineer admitted. "How's about I train you?"

"That would be great," Double D replied. "I've would enjoy the tutelage."

"Any other talents you kids have?" Sniper asked.

The reply he got was a loud rumbling that shook anything that was loose. It made everybody shake and nearly knocked some of them down.

"What was that?" Scout asked worried.

Ed lifted up his shirt and saw that it was his stomach that was making the earthquake like rumble.

"Belly's hungry guys," the large boy said. "It's a good thing I packed gravy cakes, yum." He opened up the inside of his jacket to reveal clumps of gravy clinging to the inside. He picked out one and plopped it into his mouth.

"That just ain't right," Engineer said disgusted.

"Can I try?" Heavy asked.

"Sure," Ed replied. He passed one to the Russian. Heavy ate it and his eyes lit up.

"Dis good," Heavy said, pleased at the taste. He then put one arm around Ed. "We make good team."

"That would work," Double D said. "Ed is incredibly strong and could probably lift a minigun."

"Zat's zoo classes found," Medic said. "Now what avout ze ozhers?"

"You know, I don't think we'll be able to find anything for the girls," Scout put in.

"WHAT!?" Sarah screamed. "I could do a lot better than anything you fat head could do."

"Yeah, just because we're girls doesn't mean we can't help," Nazz said.

"A fiery temper," Jackson noted. "Maybe Sarah can learn to let her anger out by letting her burn stuff. What do ya say, wanna be a pyro?

"Will I get to burn Scouts?" she asked angrily.

"If you can get close enough," he answered.

"Good," Sarah said, now a little calmer.

"What about me?" Nazz asked.

"Are into actual fighting?" Jackson asked.

"No."

"Neither am I," Jimmy said.

"I could train vone of you," Medic said. "I do fight occasionally, vut my main talent is healing."

"I could train ze other," Spy said.

"Yeah," Engineer said. "He doesn't fight our enemies face-to-face, he just sneaks up and backstabs them."

"I'm not really that sneaky," Nazz said.

"Deceiving our enemies and attacking when least expected with little confrontation," Jimmy said intrigued. "I could do that."

"Yeah, he's one conniving, little weasel," Eddy hissed. "He even once framed us for breaking a statue."

"So it's zettled," Medic announced, "I'll train Nazz and Spy will train Jimmy. Zat just leaves Eddy, Johnny, Rolf, and Kevin."

At that moment, the unconscious Demoman started to stir. He was groggy as he woke up and wasn't expecting to see children in a place like this.

"Am I still drunk?" he asked with a Scottish accent. "Cause I'm seein' lads and lasses here."

"No, they're here all right," Engineer replied. "We're helpin' 'em out with figuring how they got here, and they're gonna work for RED in return."

"Hey, what's this engineer?" Johnny asked picking up a toolbox.

"Careful with that! That's got mah sentry." Engineer said worried.

"Cool." He put it down and picked up an object of interest, this time a weapon. "Hey, what's this?"

"Careful lad," Demoman warned. "That's me grenade launcher."

"Cool," Johnny said again. The boy then accidentally fired off a grenade.

"Duck and cover!" Soldier yelled.

Everyone did as he commanded as the grenade bounced off the wall. After it richoched it landed right on the toolbox and blew up. All that was left was some scrap metal.

"Mah sentry!" Engineer screamed in rage.

"The lad's got some skill at blowin up you're machines," Demoman said.

"Maybe you could teach the boy how to blow up the BLU's machines, then," Engineer said still angry.

"Aye," Demoman agreed, "the boy could use some teachin'."

"You hear that Plank?" Johnny asked his friend. "We're gonna be Demomen!"

"If Johnny's gonna be a Demoman then we're toast," Eddy said.

"What's the matter?" Scout taunted. "Afraid he might blow you up next?"

"As if," Eddy replied. "There's no way he could blow me up. If anything, I'm worried for you."

"What!" Scout yelled.

"The boy's got a mouth as big as yours," Engineer commented. "Maybe you could train him."

"No way, I ain't gonna babysit this kid."

"I ain't learnin' from someone who can't put up a fight," Eddy yelled.

"You two make good team, like me and Ed," Heavy put in.

"Fine, but don't expect much," Scout said as he gave in.

"Now it's just me and Rolf," Kevin said. "I think I would be great on the front lines, what about you Rolf?"

"Rolf prefers to defend his homeland, rather than bring the battle to my enemies," Rolf said.

"Well that's obvious then," Sniper said. "I'll train Rolf while Soldier takes Kevin. Sound fair mate?"

"Affirmative," Soldier replied. "I'll train this recruit until he is as good as me."

"Now that we've got that out of the way, let's get some training done," Engineer said.

The mercenaries then took their trainees to other rooms to begin learning the way of their class. It was going to be a long road home for the kids of the cul-de-sac, but they were willing to do anything to get home.

Author's Note: I picked the kids' classes by looking at many different traits. Double D and Ed are obvious. Eddy would generally be fast because running away from the other kids when they want to beat him up due to a failed scam would improve speed a lot (I'm guessing on this), they both also have a large ego. Jimmy can be conniving: he pierced the friendship heart and blamed it on the Eds, then he associated with the Kankers to further punish them (If It Smells Like an Ed). Kevin can be a good leader (The Eds are Coming) and is as strong as his leadership. Sarah can be sweet to her friends but is a fierce adversary. Nazz is caring towards her friends and her last name suggests her having German heritage. Johnny tends to break stuff (mostly Kevin's bike). Rolf is weird compared to the others like the Sniper to the other classes. I removed the Pyro because Sarah wouldn't be able to understand him/her with the mask. There's also the chance of people going to a comment war over Pyro's gender.


	3. Training

**Chapter 3**

"Now this here," Engineer said, holding up a PDA, "is one of your most important tools." He and Double D were in another respawn room similar to the first one. On the way to this room, Double D found out he and his friends were in a place the mercs called '2Fort'. "This device let's you build a sentry, a dispenser, and a one-way teleporter. All these gadgets require metal to build, and the amount needed is listed here. Once you have enough, just press the button for the gadget and then lay down your toolbox. Your device will start to build by itself, but you can build it faster by hitting it with your wrench. You can also upgrade their power and efficiency by using more metal."

"So I just need to simply press the button when I have the required amount of metal and that's it?" Double D asked incredulous. "I've never heard of such technology."

"That's because these were designed by me, built by me," Engineer explained. "Now your sentry will be your main defensive weapon, but your shotgun, pistol, and wrench are more portable, so they can deal with enemies when you're not around your sentry. I recommend using the wrench to deal with spies when they're sappin' you're machines."

"How can they do that?"

"They have a little device called a sapper, it deactivates and drains the power from you're machines. They generally use 'em when they need to get rid of a sentry. Moving on, it's a good idea to make a mini-base out in the field so the team can hold a position. A mini-base consists of a sentry to hold off BLU mercs, a dispenser for health, ammo, and metal, and a teleporter from the main base to the mini-base for when your allies are temporarily killed."

"So I am one of the most important classes?"

"Well, all classes are important in their own way, Scouts capture control points and push payloads twice as fast as anyone else, Spies take out Snipers and sentries, Medics heal everyone else, so it all depends on the situation. You don't have to like each other, but you have to work together if you want to succeed."

Engineer continued to teach Double D all the skills of an Engineer, while the other classes taught their prodigies.

"Is simple," Heavy was telling Ed. They were in the target range with many different target dummies. "You lift gun, point at tiny baby man, squeeze trigger and wait until he's dead."

"Cool," Ed said.

"I let you try Sasha," Heavy said handing over his mingun. "Jus be careful with her, understood?"

"Yes," Ed replied. He took 'Sasha' and pointed her at a practice dummy. He squeezed the trigger and let it spin up. It soon released a barrage of bullets and tore the target to shreds. He let out his battle cry, "I am Ed! Cheese and macaroni!" He kept on firing until he ran out of ammunition.

"Dat was good," Heavy said impressed. "We get you own gun."

"Yay," Ed shouted.

"Now, for other weapons," Heavy continued. "Dis is shotgun. Dis is for when out of ammo. Not nearly as powerful as Sasha. When too close for gun, you use bare fists."

The room then started to shake and they could hear a booming noise.

"Was dat stomach?" he questioned Ed.

"Nope," he replied.

"Must be Demoman," Heavy concluded.

It was not the Demoman but Johnny who started to learn how to use a stickybomb launcher.

"Woo hoo," Johnny said.

"Ye've got more talent than I thought," Demoman admitted. "Now, I've got to show ye a trick you can do with it. Follow me."

Johnny followed him through the halls of their base and outside. He saw a bridge that went over a pit of water, that connected the RED base with the BLU base on the other side. Demoman led the boy over to the fence to show him his trick.

"Now watch," he instructed. "Ye put two sticky bombs down, jump over them in the direction you want to go, bring your legs up behind you and detonate them, like this." He gave a demonstration of how to do it and he went pretty far after detonation.

"Whoa," Johnny said amazed.

"Now you try lad," Demoman called out to him.

"Okay," Johnny called back. He put down two sticky bombs, jumped over, and detonated them while he was in mid-air. He didn't go as far as Demoman, but he still went far.

"Good job, lad," Demoman said. "You'll get the hang of it. Now, since we're going to be using explosives, we're gonna need somethin' for when they get close. That's where this will come in handy." He pulled out an old looking sword, with spots of blood on it. "This is the Eyelander, when you have it, you start a little weaker than normal, but after a few kills, you'll be faster and stronger than ever.

"Cool," Johnny said.

"Aye, it is pretty neat."

"Will Plank get his own?"

"Sorry lad, but I only have the one spare," Demoman said. He was aware that Plank was just a wooden board, but he wanted to spare the boy's feelings about it because he was lonely as a child too.

Sarah was making some progress as a Pyro. She had learned what her range of fire is and how to use her Flare Gun properly.

"Next up, the airblast," Jackson said. "This will deflect about any projectile that isn't a bullet. You just push the second trigger with your middle finger. Let's try it out." He moved a few feet away from Sarah and picked up some books. "Deflect these. Ready?"

"Ready," Sarah said. Jackson threw a book at her and Sarah tried to deflect it. She was too early and it didn't go far. He threw another and this time she was too late, so the book hit her. After a few more failed attempts she started to start deflecting them in succession.

"There we go," Jackson said. "Now, when you burn enemies, they will stay on fire for a few seconds. This will make you an excellent spy checker, so it's okay to try to set fire to your team. They won't take any damage, so if you're near a sentry, I recommend that you burn the air around it just in case of a cloaked spy. I wonder how you're friends' training is going."

Kevin was going through 'basic training' with Soldier. It was brutal for a kid but Kevin managed to get through the major workouts.

"All right cadet," Soldier said. "Now that you've passed basic training, I can teach you how to use your weapons."

"About time," Kevin said exhausted.

"This is what you'll be using mainly," Soldier said, pulling up a rocket launcher.

Kevin had his mouth gaping when he saw what his weapon would be. "Awesome."

"I use this because my helmet exchanges vision for protection. The explosion will still hit those BLU bastards. I want to show you a trick. Follow me." Kevin followed Soldier outside where they saw Johnny and Demoman.

"Hey Kevin, look what I get to use" Johnny said, pulling out his Eyelander.

"No way," Kevin said in disbelief.

"Aye," Demoman said. "The lad's earned it."

"See you Kev," Johnny said. He and Demoman went back inside RED base for more training.

"That sword's not nearly gonna be as great as what I'll show ya," Soldier said, trying to comfort Kevin. "Now watch as I teach you how to 'Rocket Jump'. You point your rocket launcher to the ground, run in the direction you want to go, jump and bring your legs up behind you, and fire." He demonstrated this to him like how Demoman did to Johnny.

"Awesome," Kevin said.

"Now you try," Soldier called out to him. Kevin did as he was told and landed over the fence near him.

"Woah," Kevin said after he hit solid ground.

"You can keep launching rockets before you hit the ground if you want to go deeper into enemy lines."

"Choice."

With Eddy, Scout was teaching Eddy about how being a scout was the most important class along with tricks they could do.

"Now as Scouts, we have the most important class on the team," Scout was explaining. "We cap points and push payloads faster than everyone else. As the fastest ones out there, we have to get the intelligence."

"Yawn," Eddy said unimpressed.

"All right," Scout said angrily. "Hows 'bout I teach ya this?" He started to run a few feet, then jumped. In mid-air he leaped again and went higher. He landed on his feet perfectly and didn't seem hurt.

Eddy was wide-eye at seeing him double-jump. "How'd you do that?" Eddy asked, awestsruck.

It's a thing only Scouts can do," Scout replied. "Since you're gonna be one, I can teach you."

"No foolin'?" Eddy asked.

"Nope."

"Woo-hoo, this is gonna be way better than what my big bro's ever done."

"You have a big bro?" Scout asked.

"Yeah but he's a big jerk. What about you?"

"Seven older brothers. They weren't the best, but they were family. And you have to put up with family."

"Ain't that the truth."

"Back to double-jumping. All you really have to do is jump, pretend your still on the ground, and jump again."

"All right, let me try." He took a deep breath, got a running start, jumped and tried to jump again. He failed and his legs just swung around beneath him.

"Try again," Scout encouraged.

After several more attempts, Eddy started to get the hang of it. Scout then started teaching Eddy how to use his scattershot.

Sniper was showing Rolf how to be successful at his job.

"Just take slow, deep breaths and squeeze the trigger," Sniper instructed. "Now aim for the head."

"Rolf sees it," Rolf said. He was aiming his sniper rifle down the target range. Since they had arrived, Heavy and Ed left for sandwiches and gravy cakes. With his crosshairs on the dummy's head, he took a deep breath, and fired. The bullet went through the left side of the dummy's forehead, so it was not a direct hit to the brain area. It was still a lethal shot though.

"Good job," Sniper said. "Now, the longer you zoom in, the more power your shot has. Your main job will be to take out the high priority targets, namely medics and heavys."

"Rolf understands his mission and will defeat our enemies," Rolf said.

"That's the spirit mate."

"I zee you two are making quite a team," a mysterious voice said.

"Huh? Who's there?" Sniper asked. He and Rolf grabbed their kukris to defend themselves.

"It is just us," the voice said. Two bodies appeared from thin air. The first was Spy and the other was Jimmy. "You two didn't even notice us." He turned to Jimmy. "And that is how you sneak up on someone with your cloaking watch."

"Cool," Jimmy said.

"You might find this more interesting," Spy said. He pulled out a cigarette case and pressed one of the buttons it concealed. Smoke formed around him and he pulsed re before his mask changed to skin and his suit turned into a doctor's coat. It wasn't long before he looked exactly like Medic. "Ah-hem, amazing isn't it?" He said with a voice exactly like Medic's.

"It is."

"Now you try."

"Okay." The boy pulled out a cigarette case similar to Spy's, but the cigarettes were replaced with pixie sticks. He pressed a button and the same type of transformation happened, but instead, he turned into Scout.

"Ho, ho, ho," Rolf said. "The little Jimmy boy has learned how to look like his fellow warriors."

"It is neat, isn't it?" Jimmy said.

"The boy could learn how to alter his voice though," Sniper noted. It was true. While Jimmy looked like Scout, he still talked normal.

"But of course," Spy admitted. "Follow me Jimmy." The boy did as he was told. The two walked back to the room they were first training in and they passed the room Nazz and Medic were in.

"Zis is your Medi Gun," Medic said. "You vill need it zoo heal your team. Vhen you heal, the beam discharges Uber particles which are collected into the healing generator on your back. After you have enough, you can unleash an Ubercharge. Ze Ubercharge vill grant invincibility zoo you and za verson you are healing."

"That's so cool," Nazz said.

"It is," Medic agreed. "Now zat you know ze basics, you're going to need an operation for ze Uber pack."

"Uber pack?"

"It's a little device that is plugged into your heart so that you can feel ze effects of ze Ubercharge."

"And I have to have that plug into my heart?!"

"Ja, and you vill have to do it yourself."

"What!"

"I'm not zure you vould be comfortable vith a male doctor performing open-heart surgery on you."

"Right."

"Just make an incision on your stomach, reach up into your chest and grab your heart, pull it out, plug ze Uber pack into it, and hold it up to your Medi Gun. Vhen ze intense glowing stops put your heart back into your chest with ze Uber pack still on. If your heart cannot vithstand ze voltage zhere are more in my minifridge. I'll ve vaiting for you to vinish.Auf Wiedersehen!" With that he left the room to let Nazz operate on herself.

He went into the break room for a snack and there was the rest of the mercs and their apprentices.

"Hey Medic," Eddy called out. "Where's Nazz?"

"In my lab performing an operation," he replied.

"Who is she performing in on?" Double D asked.

"Herself," Medic said nonchalantly.

"What!" the kids yelled.

"She has to have an Uber Pack plugged into her heart so she can feel ze effects of an Ubercharge. You all have zoo have ze zame operation."

"Is it really that wise letting her do it by herself?!" Double D asked raising his voice.

"She is ze only other one here with medical skills like mine. I would have done it myself, but I am a man and even I have some sense of decency."

"That makes sense, I guess," Kevin said.

"Zo I'll zake it zat ze rest of you have learned everything you need zoo know?"

"Yes," Double D said. "We are ready to work for RED."

"Very well, ve'll set up the training area vhen you all have your Uber packs."

It was about a half hour later when they left to go get Nazz and for the kids of the cul-de-sac to undergo their surgery. Nazz came stumbling out of the room and she was pale from blood loss.

"That hurt horribly," Nazz said struggling to make out the words.

"It goes away in about a day," Scout said.

"Now," Medic said. "Who wants to go next?" None of the kids volunteered. They were all too scared from seeing what had happened to Nazz.

"I'll go," Jackson said.

"Zat's right," Medic said. "You are new as vell, so you don't have an Uber Pack. Let's get started." The two then walked into Medic's lab to begin the operation.

"So Nazz," Kevin said. "How did it feel to have to do that yourself?"

"It hurt, a lot," Nazz answered. "I need a nap." She fell asleep the moment the words left her mouth.

"Best not disturb her," Double D said. "She appears to have lost a lot of blood and could use the rest."

"Anyone else nervous about this?" Eddy asked.

"We all are dork," Kevin said. "We're only doing this so we can have a chance at finding a way home."

Nobody said a word until Jackson came back from the lab. He seemed to be feeling much better than Nazz.

"Words cannot describe how much this hurts. Who's next?" he asked. He got a similar reply as to when Medic asked them. "Come on, if Nazz can do it on herself and live, I think that the rest of you could let a professional perform it."

"I'll go," Double D said. "It will give the rest of us time to decide who will go next."

"All right," Jackson said. "Oh, and one more thing. He doesn't have any anesthetics whatsoever, so good luck."

Double D paled and went wide-eyed with fear at hearing this. He gulped and walked slowly into the lab to have the Uber pack plugged into his heart.

After he was finished the other children went one-by-one into the doctor's lab. When Nazz woke up, she had to perform Sarah's operation.

"So what are we going to do now?" Eddy asked.

"Well, we're gonna see how well you listened to our instructions by putting you through a simulation," Engineer responded.

"All right," Kevin said. "I can't wait to use my rocket launcher."

"Wait," Eddy said. "He gets a rocket launcher and I get a scattershot."

"Yeah, so what?" Kevin said.

"That's so not fair!"

"Get over it dork."

"Why I oughta…"

"Now hold on you two," Engineer said, breaking up the fight. "Save the fighting for the simulation."

"Fine," the two boys said.

"Where is the simulator at?" Double D asked.

"We have to drive to get there mate," Sniper said. "You lot can ride with me in my camper van."

"Why thank you."

"Let's go then."

It was a short half-hour ride to the simulation area. The map they were going to train in was called Badwater Basin. They were going to be on offense and push a bomb into the practice bots' base to blow it up.

"Both you and the bots will get a minute to set-up," Engineer said. "It's best you help Nazz charge up her Medi Gun. If your on defense though, it's also great if Eddward set up a mini-base to stall for as long as possible. Y'all ready now?"

"We're ready," Sarah said.

"Hey, I just had a thought," Sniper said. "We don't know how well Jackson can do. Should we put him through the simulation too?"

"It is true," Spy said. "Have you had any experience before?"

"As a mercenary?" Jackson asked. "Yes, but I was more of a hitman rather than doing all this extra stuff like capturing specific areas."

"Then you're gonna have to go through this too pal," Scout said.

"Fine," Jackson said. "It'll give these kids some confidence having an adult with them."

"All righty then," Engineer said. "Go into the offensive base and I'll set the bots up. There'll be some gear inside that you can use. Oh, and I almost forgot. When you go into the course, you're Uber packs will show you five sets of data: health, ammunition, time, progress, and who was killed recently. This is your Heads-Up-Display or HUD. It'll help you so you can plan out what you should do in your situation."

"It's like a video game," Ed said happily.

The nine kids and Jackson went into their base to get ready for the training simulation. They found their equipment and the clothing that looked similar to the other mercs'. Nazz started charging up her Ubercharge by overhealing the rest of the team. Johnny found some rope and tied Plank onto his chest padding between the two columns of grenades. There was some trouble fitting Jimmy's ski mask around his retainer.

"You kids know what you're capable of doing," Jackson was saying as a pep talk. "Remember, this is just a training simulation. No one's gonna make fun of you if you mess up. Except for Scout, but he's a jackass. Don't tell him I said that or he might bore me to death by telling me how great he is." Everyone in the room got a laugh out of that.

"You seem to care very much about us, even though we barely met," Double D noted.

"We're co-workers and we have to work together if we want to get the job done," Jackson responded. "If you help your team, you help yourself. Keep that in mind if you think you're not doing well."

"Rolf respects such wisdom," Rolf said.

"_Mission begins in thirty seconds_," a voice over the intercom said. It was a voice recording of the Administrator. They could see their opponents throught the grated doors that were preventing them from exiting. They looked exactly like the other mercs, but where there should have been red, there was blue. The pyro class was filled by a bot that looked exactly like the original Pyro, not Jackson.

"How come they look like the RED mercs?" Kevin asked.

"I have no idea," Jackson said. "Are you kids sure you're ready for this?"

"We're ready," Eddy said. "Those bots won't know what hit them."

"Yes, we're quite determined to succeed," Double D said.

"Butter toast," Ed shouted.

"I like the enthusiam," Jackson said.

"I've got an Ubercharge," Nazz announced. She had healed enough to be able to use it on a friend.

_"Mission begins in ten seconds," _the voice recording alerted them. The kids went to the different doors where they thought they would do best at. Sarah and Jackson pulled their gas masks over their faces to protect them from their own fire, while Jimmy was disguising as a BLU Engineer. _"Five. Four. Three. Two. One." _The doors opened.

"Mmmmpph!" Jackson said, charging out to take on a BLU Soldier.

"Gravy!" Ed shouted in response. He spun up his minigun and began to shoot at a BLU Scout. He ran as fast as he could with his minigun firing out into the open so the Scout couldn't escape. The bot was soon finished off. He would have been the first to die from the BLU Heavy, but Nazz unleashed her Ubercharge on him just in time.

"Be more careful dude," Nazz instructed Ed. After letting her anger go, she could feel the warm sensation that the Ubercharge was giving off. "This feels so cool."

"I could use some help here," Double D said. He was trying to put up a sentry but the BLU Soldier, the one who Jackson was taking on before he was killed by BLU Sniper, was attacking him. The Soldier was on fire and fired off a rocket to destroy Double D and his sentry. The rocket was about to hit, but Sarah dove in front of him and airblasted it towards the BLU Heavy, who Ed was fighting off. The Heavy exploded and his limbs flew everywhere. The data that showed who died recently showed 'Ed+Sarah', a rocket bouncing off a blast of air, then 'BLU Heavy'.

"Thanks Sarah," Ed and Double D said. Nobody could see it, but underneath her mask, Sarah was blushing by being praised by her crush. Under normal circumstances, she would have relished it even more, but the Soldier fired another rocket. She deflected it and finished the bot off.

"Woo-hoo, hang on Plank," Johnny said firing grenades left and right. In the 30 seconds he was out, he had already killed the BLU Pyro and destroyed their teleporter.

"Thank you Johnny The Wood Boy," Rolf said as he shot a bullet into the BLU Scout's head. With the teleporter gone, the BLU team would have to run from their base to fight them which gave Rolf a clear shot as they came over the hill.

"Let's pick up the pace," Eddy said impatiently. He was running around the BLU Demoman shooting at him. Eddy had received some damage from his foe's grenades, but for the most part, he was avoiding the blasts.

"The dork's right," Kevin said, blowing up the BLU Engineer who had just finished putting his sentry up. It was only level 1, so Kevin wasn't worried as it fired at him while he fired his rockets at it. A BLU spy ran by it and suddenly, the sentry stopped firing and was starting to malfunction, with electricity pouring out from a spot on its top. Kevin looked at it for a moment in confusion. He saw a box-shaped object in the middle of the electricity and knew that the spy was really Jimmy who put a sapper on it. "Thanks Jimmy."

Most of the BLU mercs were gone from their position, so they took the opportunity to start pushing the payload. The bomb was red and was shaped like one that would be dropped in an air raid. It was strapped into a wagon that was too small to fit it. The wagon also had an engine with a pipe in the back that had a red ring around the top. As soon as the kids got near the payload, it started to move by itself and the pipe produced a ray, similar to Nazz's healing beam, that started to heal those who were near it. They were able to push it into the tunnel next to the hill before Rolf branched off from the group to go onto the cliffside to the left of the tunnel to fire at incoming enemies. They were halfway through the tunnel before the BLU Soldier, Demoman, and Heavy attacked them from the front. Their kid counterparts fired back at them, with the bonus of them each having a source of healing. They recieved even more support when Double D put down the sentry he was carrying. Since first putting it down, he was able to upgrade it to level 2. It was going well until they were ambushed from behind by the Scout and Pyro. The Pyro set Double D and Eddy on fire, but was gunned down by Double D's sentry. Soon, Eddy died after suffering major burns from the Pyro and being shot by the BLU Scout.

"Eddy!" Double D said. He used his shotgun to finish off the Scout who had killed his best friend.

"Forget about the dork," Kevin yelled. He was firing rockets next to Jackson and Sarah who were deflecting the BLU Demoman's grenades. They were three fourths of the way through the tunnel when the BLU Heavy was blown up by Johnny. With no more enemies to worry about for now, they pushed their way through the rest of the tunnel. Eddy had rejoined them after respawning and they now had to fight an Engineer who had put a mini-base with a level 3 sentry. It had fired rockets at Ed, and the explosion hit Kevin as well as Johnny and Sarah. They all survived the explosion, but the sentry's bullets finished Ed off while it was reloading its rockets.

"Mmph!" Sarah screamed. More rockets and bullets rained down on the trainees. First Johnny, then Kevin, and then Sarah had been killed by the incoming BLUs and the sentry while they were trying to destroy the machine. Ed soon came back from the respawn room.

"Where's Jimmy?" Double D yelled over the explosions. In reply to his answer, the BLU Engineer was killed and standing in his place was Jimmy, who then proceeded to sap the sentry, then the rest of the mini-base. While the rest of the BLUs didn't notice him, he backstabbed the Heavy-Medic pair before the BLU Pyro burned him to death.

"Mmmmmpphhh!" Sarah screamed.

"I've got my Ubercharge ready," Nazz exclaimed.

"Nazz, use it on me," Kevin said. "I'll go out into the open and fire rockets at them." Nazz did as she was told and used it on Kevin. Being Ubercharged, Kevin was able to fire his rockets to destroy the BLU Scout, Soldier, and Sniper, without taking damage.

"Nice one Kevin," Nazz complimented as soon as the effects wore off. It wasn't long before they pushed the payload past the first terminus.

_"Additional time has been awarded," _the Administrator said.

"The next one's not too far," Kevin said.

"We can see that Shovelchin," Eddy yelled at him.

"Shut up," Kevin said.

"No, you shu..." Eddy said. He was cut off by multiple grenades blowing him and Kevin up. The Demoman launched a few more at the team but they were deflected by Sarah, which exploded near the BLU Pyro. Those two were finished off by bullets from Rolf.

"I'm putting my sentry up at the corner," Double D said. "Johnny, go with Ed and Nazz on top of the hill." They went to where Double D told them to cover him and the rest of the team. Rolf had also moved on top of the hill to snipe from there. He had already taken down a returning Heavy and the opposing Sniper. All was going well for him until the BLU Spy backstabbed him. The Soldier had returned with a Medic behind him and was firing his rockets. Jimmy was able to backstab the Medic, but he was found out by the Soldier. The bot fired a rocket at him and he exploded. Sarah saw this and was enraged at seeing her best friend blown apart. She charged right at him and set him ablaze at point blank range, followed by multiple hits from her axe.

"Mmmph mmph mmph mmmph mmmph!" Sarah screamed angrily. She then moved up near the terminus with Jackson to burn the bots coming around the corner.

"Whoa," Kevin said. He had just arrived with Eddy and saw what had happened.

"I thought she was scary before," Eddy said. He looked to see why they hadn't made much progress since he died and saw no one was near the payload. Johnny and Ed were on the hill, Sarah and Jackson were near the second terminus burning anyone who got near, Nazz was with the two pyros healing one, then the other a few seconds later, Double D was moving his mini-base up to where the corner after the second terminus, and Jimmy was nowhere to be seen. "C'mon help me push the cart!" Johnny and Ed went to help him while Kevin took their position and everyone else stayed where they were at. With their combined efforts they almost pushed it into the next terminus, when the BLU Sniper, who was on the roof of a nearby building, put a bullet through Eddy's head, then Ed's, and Johnny's. Strangely, there was a bullet hole through Plank's forehead as well as Johnny's.

"Rolf has returned," Rolf announced. He took his place back on top of the hill and saw that Johnny was killed by the BLU Sniper. He quickly took aim and avenged his comrades. "No one beats on the Ed boys or Johnny The Wood Boy but Rolf and Hotshot Kevin."

"Way to go Rolfy boy," Kevin shouted to him. He was firing rockets at the Heavy who had killed Sarah and Jackson. He was suffering many bullet wounds, but he was able to kill the Heavy. "Nazz I could use a hand."

"Coming Kevin," Nazz responded. She started healing him as soon as he was in range.

"Thanks babe." He checked his ammo and saw he was down to 8 rockets. "Hey Double Dweeb, I need more rockets."

"Then come get them," Double D said. Kevin sighed and ran to the dispenser. Just as he was about to resupply along with Jimmy, a sapper appeared and started to drain the dispensers power, then another on the Sentry. "Spy!" Double D took out his wrench to destroy the sapper while Kevin swung his shovel at the Spy disguised as Jimmy, who countered with his knife, removing his disguise. Kevin lost most of his remaining health in his close-quarters fight, but he eventually killed the Spy. He was breathing heavily, and was about to run back to the base to resupply when he remembered the dispenser. He stood next to it as soon as the sapper was removed and a red beam started to heal him while he collected his ammunition.

"Thanks Dork," Kevin said.

"Kevin, could you guard the mini-base?" Double D asked. "I need to set-up a teleporter."

"Fine, but make it quick," Kevin said.

"Thank you," Double D said. He put down a teleporter exit in the mini-base area and ran towards the main base to put the entrance. He passed Eddy, Ed, and Johnny who had respawned moments ago. As he went into the main base, Jackson respawned, followed by Sarah. Double D went to the resupply locker while they went back into the fight.

_"The payload is nearing the checkpoint,"_ the Administrator's voice alerted them.

"Yes," Double D said. He went back outside and put the teleporter entrance down. He started hitting it to speed up the building process. As he was finishing up, Jimmy came out of the main base. "Jimmy, would you like to try my teleporter?"

"Oh, okay," Jimmy said. He stepped onto the teleporter entrance. Red started glowing beneath him and in a flash he was gone. He popped out of the exit at the mini-base and took a second to get his bearings. He saw that Kevin, Eddy, and Ed were pushing the cart into the second terminus.

_ "Additional time has been awarded,"_ the voice recording said.

"Yes," Jimmy said. He ran to the corner and began to cloak. He went under the bridge that was around the corner and ran past the third terminus where an engineer was putting a level 2 sentry. He uncloacked right behind him and began to disguise himself as the BLU Engineer. While he was doing this, the sentry sensed him and fired at him, but the Engineer was in the way. The bot was quickly destroyed by his own sentry and Jimmy now looked like BLU Engineer so the sentry stopped firing. The BLU Soldier, Heavy, Medic, and Pyro ran past him without suscpecting a thing. After placing a sapper on the sentry, he ran to backstab them. He only killed the Pyro and Medic before he was found out, but he cut the Heavy up before he was bludgeoned to death by his fists. The other RED mercs had moved the payload up enough for them to see what had happened to Jimmy.

"Rolf will avenge the little Jimmy boy," Rolf said as he took aim at the Soldier's head, then fired. The Heavy saw this, so he pulled out his minigun and began to spin it up. There wasn't enough time for it to fire before Rolf body shot him and finished the job Jimmy had started.

"Jimmy is much more brave than he seems," Double D noted while moving his sentry up past around the corner.

"Mmmph mmmph," Sarah said. They could detect a small amount of pride through her muffled words at her friends courage..

"Let's keep pushing the cart," Eddy said. They countiued pushing the payload with the efforts of Eddy, Rolf, Sarah, and Jackson. Double D was moving the rest of his buildings from the mini-base to a more convenient area. Ed was standing ahead of the group with Kevin so they could hold incoming BLUs. Johnny was up ahead placing sticky bombs. They kept pushing until it was underneath the bridge when the BLU Heavy and Medic made their way past the third terminus. They didn't notice the sticky bombs until after Johnny had detonated them. Their body parts went flying.

"This is aweso…," Johnny was cut off by a bullet to the head by the BLU Sniper. The BLU Demoman ran from around the corner at the third terminus and fired three grenades before Ed and Kevin killed him. The grenades detonated near the two with the second killing Kevin and the third blowing Ed up.

"Hey Rolf," Eddy called out, "take out that Sniper."

"Rolf will carry out the task," Rolf replied. He took aim and saw that the Sniper was aiming at him too, so he worked faster. He fired at the same time the BLU Sniper did and they head shot each other.

Jackson groaned through his mask and charged up towards where Ed and Kevin were and took on the BLU Scout who ran around the corner. He quickly set him ablaze, but the Scout ran off and out of range of his flamethrower. He changed to his flare gun, took aim, and fired. He missed but the flare went and hit the BLU Pyro. Jackson reloaded, fired again, and hit the Scout. He escaped and the BLU Pyro went after Jackson. With both wearing asbestos suits, they couldn't inflict lasting burn damage. They charged at each other and unleashed their fire. It took most of his health, but Jackson came out victorious. He ran back to the cart to recover before another BLU merc came back. He saw they had moved it about halfway between the third terminus and the bridge. Ed, Kevin, Jimmy, and Johnny had returned and Rolf was just stepping out of the teleporter.

With their combined effort, they had almost made it to the terminus when the BLU engineer started to put down a sentry. He was getting covering fire from the Heavy-Medic pair, as well as from the Soldier. Jimmy and Rolf ran off so Jimmy could cloak and Rolf could shoot from afar, while the kid counterparts of the bots began to fight back. Eddy, Johnny Sarah, and Jackson helped too, with Double D going back for his buildings. Kevin damaged the sentry and Jimmy placed a sapper to finish the job, Sarah was deflecting rockets, Jackson was burning the engineer, Rolf killed the Medic, Ed was firing at the Scout and Heavy, Nazz was at his side, and Johnny was going crazy and was firing grenades wherever he wanted.

The rest of the BLUs came and began to slow down their progress. They eventually lost Johnny, Eddy, Kevin, and Double D, but they took down the Soldier, Scout, Heavy, Spy, and Pyro. The BLU Engineer put up another sentry and he looked determined not to let Jimmy sap it. The boy already snuck up on him once, but was beaten to death with a wrench. The BLUs had the upper edge since their base was closer to the terminus and could reach the payload quicker.

When Johnny and Kevin respawned and returned to where the surviving kids were, they began to fire their explosives at random. They distracted the bots long enough for the rest of their team to arrive and help. Double D started moving his level 2 sentry up and began to upgrade it, while Jimmy tried to sap the BLU Engineer's sentry again. This time, the boy sucessfully killed the Engineer and sapped the machine. Double D upgraded his sentry to level 3 and gave covering fire for Eddy, Ed, Nazz, and Rolf as they pushed the cart into the third terminus.

_"Additional time has been awarded,"_ the Administrator announced.

With the third terminus in the kids' possession, the BLU mercs had very little area in the map left. They tried to hold the choke point as long as they could, but the kids prevailed.

"Here's where it gets much more difficult," Double D said.

"What makes you say that?" Nazz asked.

"We're nearing their base, so they won't have to cover as much ground to get to us," Double D explained.

"We can still do this," Kevin said.

They rounded the corner and came into view of the BLU base. They saw where they had to put the payload and were filled with dread at the BLUs' defenses. The BLU Engineer was up on the platform with a level 2 dispenser and a level 2 sentry that he was upgrading. The BLU Sniper was up there with him taking aim at the kids. The Heavy-Medic pair was across from where the kids were. The Demoman was setting up sticky bombs on the track. The Scout, Soldier, and Pyro were with him, getting ready to take on the kids.

"You still sure we can do this?" Jimmy asked.

"Yes," Kevin replied not fully sure. And with that, he broke off from the group with Ed, Johnny, and Nazz.

Jimmy cloaked and went to take down the Sniper, then the sentry, but The Sniper discovered him. He began to swing his kukri at him. Jimmy fought back with his knife and killed him, but the sentry sensed the boy and shot him dead.

Rolf aimed at the Engineer and waited for his power bar to fill up. He fired once it was full, but was only able to body shot him. The Engineer was still alive and saw Rolf. He pulled out his pistol and began to fire at him, while his sentry fired at Eddy, who was running around the Heavy beating him with his bat. Rolf countered with his SMG. It was a battle of precision vs. rate of fire. They put so many bullets into each other, it was a miracle they were still alive. The Engineer started to get the upper hand and forced Rolf to take cover behind the payload. He was panting as he started to recover and he knew that he couldn't take the Engineer on with his SMG. He took a risk and ran away from the payload. The bot started to fire at him again, but he kept on going. As soon as he hit the wall, he pulled out his sniper rifle and let it charge again. He kept the crosshairs on the Engineers head and fired when it was full. His opponent fell back as the bullet penetrated his skull. The sentry now focused on Ed, was finishing the Heavy off. Rolf aimed at the machine and let his power charge. As soon as it was full, he fired a round, then another one after letting it charge. The machine was destroyed and Rolf started to fire at the other BLU mercs.

With no sentry to slow him down, Ed was unleashing a torrent of bullets upon the BLUs. He was on the ramp and kept his focus on the BLU Soldier who was firing rockets at Sarah. There was no stopping him as he fired at the bot. The bullets tore through him and quickly finished him off. He kept his barrel spinning but stopped firing as he moved onto killing the Demoman. He fired his minigun again and the practice dummy dodged and fired grenades in response. The grenades blew up near Ed and brought his health down considerably.

"Ed hurt, Nazz help!" Ed cried out.

"I'm on my way dude," Nazz said. She saved him right as he was about to be killed.

With a supply of health, Ed pulled out his shotgun, and began to fire at the BLU Demoman with more mobility than what his minigun had to offer. Even though it was his secondary weapon, it was still useful. His shotgun had more precision than the grenades, and could reload faster than the Demoman's grenade launcher. He soon eliminated the bot and its sticky bombs broke in half without detonating.

"Nice one Ed," Eddy said coming back from the respawn area. After capturing the third point, their base had relocated just ahead of the second point. "Hey Sockhead, move your teleporters. I don't wanna have to run from the base back here everytime I die."

"Oh right," Double D said. The entrance was still at the first base. "Watch my sentry while I go move it." His sentry was now level 3 and was placed at the top of the slope next to his level 3 dispenser.

"I don't have time for that, I've gotta push the cart," Eddy said.

Double D sighed. "Just watch out for the Spy." He ran off to move the teleporter entrance to the new base.

"Hey dork," Kevin yelled out to Eddy. "Help me push this thing."

"All right, all right, sheesh," Eddy said, running over to the payload, which had moved onto the slope.

"Help!" Nazz cried out. Ed had been blown up by the returning Soldier.

"Nazz!" Eddy and Kevin said in unison.

"Out of the way Shovelchin," Eddy said, shoving Kevin out of his way. "I've gotta save Nazz."

"What?! No, I'm saving Nazz," Kevin said, pushing Eddy away.

"No, I am," Eddy yelled.

"I am."

"I am."

"I am."

They had toppled their way into the pit when Rolf had shot the Soldier in the head.

"Thanks for the help guys, duh," Nazz said sarcastically.

"Oh, sorry about that," Kevin said.

"Look out!" Nazz shouted.

"Huh?" Kevin and Eddy said. They turned around to see the Heavy had spun up his minigun and was now firing at them. The bullets hit Kevin first and killed him in about three seconds. Eddy was next and he ran behind the payload.

"Rolf, take out those two chumps," Eddy said.

"Steady, steady," Rolf said as he aimed. The Heavy started to fire at him, but he was too far away to do much damage. Rolf pulled the trigger and killed the BLU Medic. He was about to kill the Heavy, but the BLU Spy stabbed him from behind. He went over to sap Double D's machines.

"Get away from that," Eddy shouted. He started firing at him, but he was too late. The Spy had already put a sapper on the sentry, but was killed before he got to the dispenser. Double D came through the teleporter and saw that his friend had saved his machines.

"Thank you Eddy," he said, removing the sapper.

"Don't mention it," Eddy said. "We need to get rid of the Heavy." Right as he said it, the Heavy was backstabbed by Jimmy.

"Thank you Jimmy," Double D called out. Jimmy waved back before the BLU Sniper shot him in the head.

Double D and Eddy pulled out there pistols and began to fire at him, with some success. The two had to run, jump, and hide behind different things to make aiming much more difficult for the Sniper. The Sniper was near a health pack so this battle would go on for a while. Double D started to get very tired from all of the dodging and he would have been killed if it wasn't for Johnny. The boy had come back from the respawn area and sticky jumped to the Sniper where he decapitated him with his Eyelander.

The Scout Rolf had killed earlier came out of the respawn and saw Johnny. He scrambled for his bat and swung it at Johnny. The boy fought back with his Eyelander and with his enhanced power from killing the Sniper, he decapitated another foe to become even stronger and faster.

"Nazz, we could use some help," Johnny said. He and Plank were at about half health after killing the Scout.

"Just a minute," Nazz said, running up to where Johnny was at. Just as she started healing him, the BLU Demoman came out of the spawn. He fired two grenades at them and Johnny had barely any health left. His counterpart fired one more grenade and that would have killed him if Nazz hadn't activated her Ubercharge that she had gotten from healing Ed. Being invulnerable, Johnny began hacking at the helpless Demoman. He eventually killed him and they ran back to the payload.

Kevin had arrived along with Jimmy, Jackson, and Sarah, the latter two had been killed by the Spy earlier. They just started to move it again when the Heavy came out with the Medic and Engineer coming out where the Johnny had killed the Demoman. The BLU Engineer started to put up a sentry while the Heavy-Medic pair drew the kids' fire away from him.

Jimmy fired two rounds at the Medic, then he cloaked. He went up to the Engineer was and ran past him to where the BLU team's spawn room was. He hid in the corner and began to disguise himself as the BLU Pyro. The sentry was up as level 1 and the Engineer began upgrading it, while Jimmy snuck up behind him.

As he was about to backstab him, the real BLU Pyro came out.

"MMMPPH!" he said.

"Huh," Engineer said turning around, but it was too late. Jimmy brought down his knife down into the bot's clavicle, piercing where his lung and heart should be, but he removed his disguise in the process.

The Pyro charged at Jimmy. The boy quickly removed his knife and pulled out his revolver. He started backing up and fired at his enemy. He barely got out a shot before the sentry started firing at him. The Pyro switched to his flare gun and fired a flare at him. With their combined firepower, Jimmy was soon killed.

While the Pyro was taunting at his victim, two grenades came up and landed on the sentry. The machine was destroyed and another two grenades came up, which landed close enough to him that he was blown to bits.

"Nice one Johnny," Kevin said, firing rockets at the Heavy-Medic pair.

He wasn't the only one attacking them. Ed was firing his minigun at them while Rolf aimed for the Medic's head. Double D had moved his senty down into the pit, but left his dispenser and teleporter up the ramp, behind the corner. Sarah and Jackson were at the front and back of the payload, firing flares. While Eddy was taking cover behind the payload, firing his pistol. The payload had just passed the final turn in the track and the detonation area was about 15 feet (4.5 meters) away.

The BLU Sniper ran out of the BLU spawn room and saw that he wasn't going to be very effective at the closer range. He jumped down from the platform and ran to the payload where, in spite of the kids, it stopped moving.

"What the..." Eddy said. He was cut off by the Sniper swinging his kukri at him. He countered with his bat while Sarah used her axe. The Sniper went down fighting and still did some damage to Eddy. As soon as he died, the payload started moving again.

"It seems as though they can stop our cart from moving with a single person," Double D shouted over the bullets and rockets. As he said this, the BLU Soldier came out of the spawn along with the Scout.

The Soldier fired rockets directly at the payload, the splash damage hurting the REDs, while the Scout fired at them while he was running down to the payload. Once he got there, he began to beat on Eddy with his bat. With the combined power of rockets and beatings, Eddy was killed and the Scout moved on to bludgeoning Sarah. Sarah caught him on fire and he was fininshed off by Double D's sentry.

She then moved on to deflecting the Soldier's rockets and with the added rockets from Kevin, they drove the Soldier back into his resupply room. They then switched their focus back to the Heavy. One more rocket and he was finished.

"We're almost there Plank," Johnny said.

"Woah," Nazz said. "Johnny what's up with your eyes?"

"Huh?" Johnny said.

"Your eyes are glowing red," Double D explained. Then a little confused, "and so are Plank's."

"Cool," Johnny said.

"He is like the monster from my comic 'The demon cat-faced mutants of Plugon 9,'" Ed said.

"Let's focus on moving this thing," Kevin said.

"Mmmph," Jackson agreed, now firing at the Medic who came out with the Demoman and the Soldier. He was switching his healing beam between the two as they fired their explosives at the REDs-in-training. He and Sarah went in front of the cart to deflect the munitions. They were running out of ammo and couldn't keep defending the payload for much longer.

"Just a little more," Kevin said.

They had finally pushed the payload onto the platform. Just as they pushed the bomb into the circle, it exploded with a mighty blast, effectively killing Double D, Ed, Johnny, Sarah, Kevin, Nazz and Jackson. Rolf had moved away from the payload before it detonated so he survived, and Jimmy just barely backstabbed the BLU Medic so he was out of the way.

"Woah," Eddy said, returning from the respawn. His weapon started to glow red, and the BLU mercs started to run away in fear. "Now comes the fun part." He ran over to attack the retreating BLUs with Rolf and Jimmy.

They ran right through the door where the invisible barrier that kept them out was and started to attack them. Jimmy ran up to the Soldier and started to stab him in the front with his knife, Rolf poured out bullets at the Demoman with his SMG, and Eddy just went to town firing his scattergun at the Pyro who had respawned prior to the bomb's detonation, all of their weapons were glowing red.

As soon as the remaining BLUs were killed, the kids all respawned in their base.

"Can we do that again?" Ed said.

The gate that led outside of the map then opened and standing there were the adult RED mercs.

"Fine job there," Sniper said.

"Ya did better than I'd thought," Scout said.

"I think that it's safe to say that y'all are now officially RED mercenaries," Engineer said. "Jackson, you'll be working with us, while the rest of you are your own team."

"Awesome," Kevin said.

"You can keep ze gear if you like," Medic said.

"We'll take it," Eddy said.

"Now that we work for RED now, we still have one problem," Double D said. "Where are we going to live?"

"You can stay at my place if you want," Jackson said. "There's plenty of space out in my barn and we can start furnishing it once we get paid."

"I hope it's sanitary."

"There are some owls in there but they shouldn't bother you that much. We'll also need to get some hay laid out for you to sleep on. Other than that you should be fine."

"His house will have to do for ye," Demoman said. "Ours wouldn't be able to let ya live that comfortably."

"What do ya mean?" Eddy asked.

"Mine's full of valuables and ye'd have to be careful, Heavy's is in the snowy mountains, Sniper lives in a camper van..."

"We get it," Nazz said.

"All right, anything else we need to figure out or are we good to go?" Jackson asked.

"I believe that's everything," Double D said.

"Okay, now it's gonna be a couple hours drive to my place. The sooner we get there, the better, so let's get a move on. Everyone in my van."

The kids took a look around the inside of his fan before getting in. There were only the driver and passenger seats in the front and in the back it was filled with much more weapons than just the ones he was going to use for his job.

"Sorry about the lack of seats, I used this for carrying out my contracts before I became a RED," he explained.

"Wouldn't it just have been easier to use a camper van like I do?" Sniper asked.

"I get better gas mileage, and save money, but I do have to sleep in this sometimes," Jackson said. "If you need to do anything before we go, now is the time."

The kids went back into the spawn to change back into their original clothing. Sarah and Nazz went to change while the boys changed out where they spawned. Once they were finished, they grabbed their gear and went back outside.

"Can we get going now?" Kevin asked annoyed.

"Yes," Jackson said.

"Shotgun!" Eddy called out.

"He called it," Jackson said.

They all got into his black van with their gear and they set off for Jackson's home. There training was complete, but now they had to get ready for the real work tomorrow.

Hope you guys like this chapter. It was a little difficult keeping track of 19 different people in the match, but I did it. I feel like this won't be well so I'd appreciate reviews to let me know what you think about it. If you see any grammer issues, please let me know so I can fix them.


	4. New Accommodations

**Chapter 4 **

"Are we there yet?" Eddy asked, again.

"No," Jackson said. "Now stop asking."

"How long did you say it was gonna take?" Eddy asked.

"A couple of hours," Jackson responded.

Eddy, along with most of the other kids in the van, groaned. It was crowded and uncomfortable due to the lack of seats. Combine that with the long time they were going to have to spend there, it was not going to be enjoyable.

"What are we supposed to do until we get there?" Sarah inquired.

"I don't know, tell a story, clean your weapons, daydream, I really don't care," Jackson said.

"Well what do you do when you use this for your, ahem, contracts?" Double D asked.

"I plan out my kills. Sometimes I read, but I don't really have that much time for it."

"Are there any books in here?"

"There might be some under one of those sacks."

"What else you got?" Eddy asked bored.

"Weapons and that's about it."

Eddy groaned. "Hey Sockhead, you find anything?"

"Nothing of that much interest, Eddy," Double D responded. "Since we're going to be living with you for some time, why don't you tell us about yourself?"

"Nothing much to tell," Jackson said.

"Oh come on," Nazz said. "You were a hitman and you're what twenty?"

"Seventeen."

"That's quite a young age for someone to become a mercenary," Double D said.

"You guys are younger," Jackson pointed out.

"We didn't really have much of a choice," Kevin said. "Besides, at least when we kill they come back to life. What about the people you kill?"

He didn't say anything.

"That's harsh," Eddy said.

"I had a rough childhood," Jackson said.

"It couldn't have been that bad, now could it?" Double D said.

"It involves a lot of death, most of which was not caused by me. Anything else?"

"How 'bout something to eat, I'm starvin'?" Eddy said.

"I guess I could get you guys something while I get gas," Jackson responded. "Who else is hungry?"

"I am feeling a bit peckish," Double d said.

"Yeah, I could go for somethin'," Kevin said.

Seeing everyone wanting some food, Jackson said, "All right, I'll get some sandwiches." He pulled into the nearest gas station and got out to use the pump.

"Anyone else not trusting this guy anymore?" Eddy asked when he knew Jackson could not hear them.

"Come now Eddy," Double D said. "He's giving us a place to live while we figure out how we got here. Does that sound untrustworthy?"

"The Dork's got a point," Kevin said. "He's killed before and they didn't come back."

"True, but he doesn't have a reason to harm us," Double D said.

"Besides," Sarah said, "It's nine against one, we can take him."

"Rolf agrees with loud-mouth Sarah," Rolf said. "Surly we can overpower him."

"I don't know guys," Johnny said. "Plank says 'He's been in more difficult situations than what we can do.'"

"Yup," Ed said. "Bounty hunters go through more than you think."

"Ed, this isn't one of your comics, this is real," Eddy told him.

"He's right Eddy," Double D said. "Jackson appears to have had a terrible childhood."

"What are we going to do then?" Jimmy asked timidly.

"We should find out more about him before we do anything."

"Sounds good enough to me," Nazz said. Everyone else was in agreement as well.

"He's coming back," Eddy said looking out his window. They all started to act natural as he got back into the van.

"I've got ham-and-cheese sandwiches and milk for you guys," he said. He pulled two of each out for him and Eddy, and tossed the bag back to the others.

As Ed was pulling out his food, he noticed something at the bottom of the bag. "Ooh, ooh a comic book. _**Saxton Hale's Jungle Brawl**_."

"Be careful with that," Jackson said. "I haven't read that issue yet."

"Ain't ya a little old for comics," Eddy said.

"Not if it's Saxton Hale," Jackson said.

"Who exactly is Saxton Hale?" Double D asked.

The next thing they knew, they were thrown to the floor by an abrupt stop. Eddy didn't fall out because he was wearing his seatbelt, but the other kids tumbled to the front. Only Jackson was prepared for the sudden stop because he was the one who slammed on the brakes and swerved off the road.

"What the heck?!" Eddy said, quickly recovering.

Ignoring him, Jackson said, "You've never heard of Saxton Hale?" There was disbelief in his voice.

"No, but judging by your reaction, he must be important," Double D groaned.

"Important?!" Jackson said. "He's CEO of Mann Co., one of the biggest comic book idols, and literally beat the Indonesia Berserker Shark into extinction with his quote "damn bare hands."

"That last part doesn't seem believable, even for a comic book character," Eddy said.

"Character?!" Jackson said, his voice rising. "He's real, and so are his comics! How could you not have known about him?"

"Well we've never heard of Mann Co. either," Kevin said, still angry over stopping so suddenly.

"What else don't you know?!" Jackson cried out. "Mann Co. is one of the biggest companies in the World. They're the ones that made most of our weapons."

"Maybe our lack of knowledge about this is somehow related to how we got here," Double D said.

"Could be. What's today's date?"

"May 4th 2013," Sarah said.

"I don't know how you got that, it's August 1st 1969," Jackson said.

"What?!" the kids shouted.

"Does this mean we've gone back in time?" Eddy asked.

"Doubt it," Jackson said. "Mann Co.'s too big to not have been heard of in the future. If I had to guess, you're from another dimension"

"Is that even possible?!" Double D asked shocked.

"There have been reports of inter-dimensional pods filled with weapons, but never of living creatures."

"How are we gonna get back home then?" Kevin asked.

"We could build an inter-dimensional teleportation device like from my comic book," Ed blurted out.

Everyone looked on at the grinning boy. Jackson was the one who broke the silence, "Or we could send you back the same way you came."

"That could work if we knew how we came here," Double D said.

"We'll think of something," Jackson said.

He drove back onto the road as they all contemplated this. The kids weren't interested in questioning their host now, but instead finding a way home.

The sky was dark and the kids were asleep by the time they arrived at Jackson's home. He parked behind the barn and started to wake the kids up.

"We're here," he said loudly.

The kids started to groan and yawn as they woke up. They took a look around after getting out of the van and tried to make out their surroundings in the little light. The ground was dry, hard, and the only signs of vegetation were shrubs near a one-story, red house.

The house itself was in a state of disrepair. One of the front windows was broken and the paint was fading from the walls. The patio that surrounded the house was decaying and had many holes in it.

The barn wasn't in any better condition. The paint was fading as well, and one of the doors was on its hinges. There were more holes in the roof than there were in the patio.

The kids were hoping it wasn't going to rain anytime soon. They were sleeping in there.

"This place is a dump," Eddy stated.

"Rolf had expected more for he who has lived here for many moons," Rolf said.

"I'm a mercenary, not a farmer," Jackson explained. "This is more of a safehouse than an actual home. Also, make sure nobody sees you here."

"Why?" Jimmy asked.

"Nobody knows anyone lives here and it has to stay that way, otherwise the police might catch up to me." He started to walk towards the house and told them, "You guys should get settled down in the farm while I go start dinner."

The kids got there equipment out of the van and went into the barn. The barn was in much better condition on the inside than the outside. There were five stalls on either side, each full of hay. The kids picked which stalls they were sleeping in. Ed, Edd, Eddy, and Johnny and Plank went into four stalls on the left, while the others took the stalls on the right side as there sleeping area.

"Man another dimension," Eddy said. "This is sure to impress my bro."

"Eddy, now is not the time to be thinking about impressing your brother," Double told him. "We need to think of a way to get back to our dimension."

"Can't we use your teleporter to get back home?" Johnny asked.

"I'm afraid there needs to be an exit at where you want to go for it to work," Double D explained.

"How does your teleporter work anyway?" Nazz asked.

"It's a little complicated, but Engineer said it runs on Australium."

"Australium?" Kevin asked.

"It's a rare metal that can only be found in Australia. It's what powers my machines and Jimmy's cloaking watch."

"Do you think you could build whatever Ed's talking about with that stuff?" Eddy asked.

"Maybe," Double D said. "But it would require a lot of money to obtain enough Australium."

"We can use the money we're getting paid for to buy the parts," Kevin said.

"How much are we getting paid anyway?" Eddy asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Double D said. "Maybe Jackson will know."

After they had finished arranging their gear in their stalls, they set off for the house for dinner and an answer to Eddy's question.

They were amazed at how well the house looked on the inside as opposed to the outside. The living room was painted a dark beige that matched the recliner and couch that were near the window, but out of view of any travelers on the road. There was a bookshelf standing next to the wall near an array of pictures of people that the kids did not recognize. There was a TV across from the furniture and in-between them was a small coffee table with a radio on it.

"Let's see what's on TV," Eddy said sitting in the recliner. He flicked through the channels, but he couldn't find anything he was interested in, so he checked what music was on the radio. The radio started playing a country song that Eddy didn't care for.

"Man, what is there to do around here?" he said frustrated.

"There are books you could read Eddy," Double D said, picking one off of the bookshelf for himself. He sat down on the couch and began to read. Ed sat next to him with his comic book.

"Yawn," Eddy said. He just laid back in the recliner and stared at the ceiling in boredom. Eddy was about to fall asleep when Jackson called out, "Dinner's ready!"

"Food for Ed!" Ed shouted running for the kitchen. The other kids followed him.

The kitchen was painted a soft blue that contrasted with the bright red stove. The fridge was white and bigger than Ed. There was a wooden table with 4 chairs surrounding it. On top of the marble countertop was dinner: plates of steak, bowls of mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn.

"Get your food, while I go change out of my suit," Jackson said. He walked out of the kitchen and left them with the food, which Ed helped himself to a massive heaping of mashed potatoes and gravy.

After getting their food, they returned to the living room and continued what they were doing before.

"I still don't trust this guy," Kevin said.

"Are we still going to find out more about him?" Jimmy asked.

"Of course," Double D said. "I would like to know more about our host. Being that young of a mercenary, he must have an interesting past."

"What I want to find out is how much we're getting paid," Eddy said.

"You're getting paid $750 every successful mission," Jackson said appearing in the hallway. He had changed out of his asbestos suit and now wore a white T-shirt, dark grey pajama pants, and was barefoot. "You're getting between 2 and 10 missions daily, and you get weekends off. As for getting to know about me, just ask."

"Well, for starters," Double d said. "How did you become a mercenary?"

"I was barely making a living being a beggar after I ran away from home, so I became a mercenary. I could get to low-profile targets without raising much suspicion, because what's more innocent looking than a child?. After a few years of experience, the army hired me."

"You worked for the military?" Nazz asked.

"It's not just soldiers that do field work," Jackson explained. "They'll hire mercs for combat, spec ops, security, and other jobs. I worked on a base in Germany on security and were they pissed that a 16 year old could pin their best soldiers to the ground. I got great pay, medical insurance, and housing."

"Why'd ya quit then?" Eddy asked.

"I was layed off. A company was offering more experienced mercenaries for the same rate I was charging. It did feel good to get back to the U.S., though."

"Okay," Double D said. "You said you ran away from home. Why?"

"My parents were killed when I was 7. Me and my sister were placed in different foster homes. My foster dad was abusive and only cared about the money he got from raising me. He beat, burned, and starved me. When I was 12, I'd had enough. I snuck into his room when he was asleep killed him with a fire axe. I was the only child in his 'care' so I didn't have to worry about any eye witnessess.

"I had taken caution when I killed him and made sure I would leave no trace."

"What do you mean?" Jimmy asked, intrigued by his story.

"Removing any files of me from the foster care database so no one would remember me, making sure I didn't leave any DNA prints, planning a careful escape, things like that.

"The only evidence they found at his murder were the deep cuts in his body that show an axe was used. Bastard was too cheap to have securtiy cameras installed, and I used the cover of night so nobody would see me. They never found the weapon because I still have it."

"Is it the axe you used today?" Sarah asked.

"The very same one," he said.

"It seems you had been planning this for a while," Double D noted.

"I had been," Jackson said. "I was thinking my plans over for months before I killed him."

"Who are those people?" Eddy asked, pointing to the pictures on the wall.

"Friends and family," Jackson said. "Most of which are mercenaries too."

Upon further inspection, the kids noticed that most of the people in the pictures had some kind of weapon. Some had guns, some had knifes, and a blonde girl had a weapon that looked like a cross between brass knuckles, a knife, and a revolver.

"Any other questions?" Jackson asked.

"Why did you take us in?" Double D asked.

"I know what it's like to be on your own far from home," Jackson said. "I didn't want you to have to go through the same thing. Living like that is tough."

"Wouldn't expect a merc with feelings," Eddy said.

"From what Sniper told me, Pyro has feelings," Jackson told him. "He also said Pyro has some kind of severe mental issue. It's probably from all the time he spends in his asbestos suit."

"Do you know how powerful Australium is?" Kevin asked.

"A little bit. Why?"

"We're thinking of building a device that could send us back to our home dimension," Double D explained. "The Australium might be powerful enough to make it fully functioning."

"I would think that could work," Jackson said. "From what I hear, the CEO of RED, Redmond Mann, has a machine made of Australium that has kept him alive for over a hundred years. Same goes for his brother, the CEO of BLU."

"Wait," Nazz said. "Our boss and his rival are brothers?"

"Twins, to be exact."

"They're so competitive that they're willing to hire mercenaries to fight each other?" Double D asked.

"It's a long story, but to keep it short, when there dad, Zepheniah Mann, founder of Mann Co., passed away, he gave them each half of a large plot of land that they convinced him to buy that was worthless and the reason of his death. The two still think that it's full of coal that they can use to expand their companies, but it's really just gravel. They've been fighting over it since Zepheniah died in 1850."

"Wait," Eddy said. "We're working for them to solve a family problem?"

"Rolf thinks it is dishonorable to bring others into a feud among his family," Rolf said.

"So do I," Jackson said. "But it pays well."

Double D yawned. "Pardon me, but what time is it?"

Jackson looked up at the clock on the wall above the TV. "About 9:30. You kids should get some sleep. You've got your first real mission tomorrow. You'll be up against the real BLU mercs in Control Point: Attack/Defend, then BLU clones in King of the hill. I'll go grab some blankets for you kids." He walked down the hall and into a closet where he pulled out a blanket for each of the young mercenaries then handed one to each of them. "Good night," he said as he walked back down the hall into his own room.

The kids walked out of the house and went into the barn. They tried to make their bedding as comfortable as possible with the blankets and had some luck.

"We have a plan on getting home now," Kevin said. "We just need to stick to it."

"No duh Shovelchin," Eddy said.

"Shut up," Kevin told him.

"No you shu-"

"Will you two stop fighting," Nazz said. "We're all going to have to work together if we want to get back home."

"Fine," Eddy and Kevin said in unison.

"Good night," Jimmy said once the tension was gone.

Sarah, Johnny, and Plank followed suit and it wasn't long before the others were trying to fall asleep. Having only hay as bedding wasn't the main cause of them being sleepless, the thought of being so far away from home and in a strange place was stressful, but they eventually managed to fall asleep. They were going to need the rest, and as much luck as they can get if they were going to get home.

Author's note: Hope you like this chapter. I'd appreciate it if you would review it and tell me where I could improve, it would help me become a better writer and the story would get better too. Please, if you see any errors with grammar, tell me. With summer here, I can focus more on writing story. I'm also not going to type up every single mission the kids will be doing. I will write one, maybe two missions per chapter.


	5. Dustbowl

**Chapter 5**

The kids were awoken by the sound of Jackson playing a bugle.

"Rise and shine kids," Jackson shouted when he was finished waking them up.

Kevin jumped out of his pile of hay and saluted. "Sir yes sir!" he yelled.

"Soldier's rubbin' off on ya ain't he?" Eddy asked drowsily. "What time is it?"

"6:30 a.m." Jackson said. "Now hurry, it's a long way to work and you've still got to get ready. Breakfast is in the kitchen." He ran off to his van to warm it up.

Although they were still tired, the kids rushed to get ready. Sarah and Nazz went into the house to change into their work clothes while the boys stayed in the barn to do the same. Afterwards, they ran into the kitchen to get their breakfast: pancakes, eggs and bacon. They quickly ate as much as they could and ran to get their weapons. With them all ready, Jackson drove off.

"What are our jobs today?" Johnny asked.

"You're fighting the real BLU mercs at Dustbowl, you're on defense there, and then you're against BLU clones at badlands," Jackson said. "I'm going to Well, then Hydro."

"You're not coming with us?" Jimmy asked.

"No, I'm working with the other mercs now. You kids are on your own from now on."

The kids started to nervously talk to each other the rest of the way. After a few hours they finally arrived at Dustbowl.

"This area is different from most other Control Point areas," Jackson explained. "There are three different stages that BLU needs to get through to win. You have an advantage here. You own all the control points until BLU captures them. You have six chances to stop them, two control points to each stage. If you fail one stage, run to the next and prepare to defend again. And one last thing, humans are better than robots. This is going to be much harder than training because these opponents can adapt their strategy. Now go get ready."

The kids got out of the van and made their way to their spawn room in stage one. They waited for their doors to open so they could get their defenses up. Once they opened, the kids ran out.

Double D dropped down his teleporter entrance and let it build itself while he ran with the other kids. They went the only way they could, right, and continued that way until they saw a control point. The kids went left and saw two routes that led to the other control point. Ed, Sarah, Nazz, and Kevin went down the left path, while Eddy, Double D, Jimmy, Rolf, Johnny and Plank went through the mineshaft that had the broken rail.

The first group ended up on the left side of a small ravine where there were only a few buildings on either side. Sarah ran to the building up ahead and got ready to ambush anyone coming out of the door. Ed and Kevin ran about halfway to the building and aimed their weapons at the BLU spawn doors in and across the ravine, while Nazz was switching her medi beam between the two.

The others found a medium-size building with the control point in it on the right side of the ravine. Rolf ran up the platform and began to aim his sniper rifle at the spawn room door in the ravine. Double D began to put up a dispenser inside the building behind the control point, his sentry right next to the front door and his teleporter exit off to the side of the room, while Johnny set up stickybombs at the top of the same door. Jimmy cloaked and went up to the building that was right near the BLU spawn door so he could lay his own ambush. Eddy, being an offense class merc playing defense, stayed at the building as support.

"_Mission begins in ten seconds_," the administrators voice said.

They did whatever last second preparations were needed. Ed spun up his minigun, Double D finished his upgrade on his dispenser, and Rolf finished powering his sniper up.

_"Five. Four. Three. Two. One." _A siren went off as the doors opened.

The first to come out were the BLU Sniper, Heavy, Medic, Scout, and Pyro on the side of the ravine where the control point was. BLU Engineer, Demoman, and Soldier were waiting inside the gate on the other side.

The BLU Sniper took aim at Rolf, who was still focusing on the door in the ravine. He fired once and put a hole in Rolf's head. He moved on to kill Kevin with a well placed bullet. He would have killed Ed and Nazz too, but the BLU Spy had uncloaked from behind, avoiding Sarah, and back stabbed them both. He moved on to assassinate Sarah. BLU Sniper was about to fire into the building at Double D, but he was back stabbed by Jimmy.

Jimmy disguised as BLU Sniper and ran up to the Heavy-Medic pair. He killed the Medic, but the Heavy noticed the medi beam was gone and looked behind him. The BLU mercenary switched from his minigun to his bare fists and began to beat Jimmy to death. Jimmy tried his best to fight, but he was no match for close-quarters combat with a Heavy. With the young spy's demise, the BLU Heavy ran back to his fellow mercenaries.

Double D was shooting at the BLU Scout who had come in the side door of the building, avoiding the stickybombs. The Scout ignored him as best as he could and shot at the stickybombs on top of the front entrance. He destroyed three of them before the sentry gun finished what Double D started. Johnny couldn't put up replacement stickybombs because he was firing his grenades at the BLU mercs who were about halfway to the building.

Ed had come back from spawn through the teleporter with Nazz, Kevin, and Rolf coming in on foot. Ed stood at the side door with Kevin as they repelled the incoming BLUs, while Nazz went to heal Johnny. Rolf went over to the front door to snipe their enemies.

Ed opened fire at the Demoman and Soldier who were coming across the ravine towards the control point, but with his minigun slowing him, he was an easy target for the grenades and rockets fired at him. Kevin fired his rockets at the enemy duo, but they only focused on him when Ed was dead. Kevin was soon killed as well, but not before blowing up the Demoman.

Double D had upgraded his sentry gun to level 2 and it was now firing at the Soldier. The turret fired at him for about a second before it started to malfunction.

"Spy!" Double D called out as he started to hit the sapper. Before he could deliver the last hit, he was blown up by the Soldier. His sentry gun was destroyed as well.

Eddy was just outside running around the BLUs while he shot at them with his scattergun. He was able to kill the opposing Scout and the returning Medic, but the Pyro was the one that killed him. The Heavy started to spin his minigun up, but Rolf had killed him with a single bullet, before being back stabbed by the spy.

"_Alert! Our control point is being captured_," the Administrator's voice said over the intercom.

Sarah just came out of the teleporter and set the Soldier ablaze. The Soldier switched from his rocket launcher to his shotgun and began to fire at her. Soon, he was nothing but a burning carcass, and Sarah went to help Nazz battle the BLU Spy. They quickly killed him and tried to hold off the BLU mercs until the others arrived.

Johnny was just outside the building firing grenades at the Pyro. He soon killed the BLU Pyro, but he himself was killed by the BLU Sniper from across the ravine. With his death, his remaining sticky bombs deactivated and broke in half.

Jimmy had come back from spawn through the teleporter and began to cloak so he could surprise attack some of the mercenaries. He ran out the side door so he could back stab the incoming Demoman-Medic pair. He successfully stabbed the Medic, but the Demoman had already fired three grenades into the control point room and destroyed the teleporter before Jimmy killed him.

The BLU Scout was running to the building with his scattergun ready. Seeing him, Sarah ran out with Nazz healing her and started to use her flamethrower. The Scout switched to his pistol and started running backwards. His pistol had more precision than his scattergun and more range than Sarah's flamethrower, so it was useful against a Pyro.

Sarah switched to her flare gun and started to fire back, but she had to calculate how much the gravity affected her flare. Soon, she had set him on fire with her weapon. She noticed that his shots were beginning to miss her more so she tried to insult him. "Mmph mmmph mmph mm mmmph." He couldn't understand her with the mask on, so it wasn't as effective as she hoped.

Sarah noticed something wrong immediately after she started taunting. Nazz wasn't healing her. She looked back for a moment to see her friend's body on the ground riddled with bullet holes. The Scout wasn't missing Sarah, he was aiming at her Medic.

"_Alert, our control point is being contested,_" the Administrator's voice said.

_What about Jimmy?_ Sarah thought. _Why wasn't he at the conrtol point?_ Sarah became so distracted she couldn't focus on the Scout, who had pulled out his scattergun now. He ran up to her and began to fire point blank while she tried to switch to her flamethrower. It was to late for the young Pyro. He had killed her with one more shot and moved on to the Control Point.

When he got there, he saw the BLU Spy smoking a cigarette over Jimmy's dead body.

"Is this the best they could send?" Spy asked rhetorically.

_"We have captured the control point,"_ the Administrator's voice recording said to the BLUs.

"Let's move," Scout said.

"With pleasure," Spy said flicking his cigarette over his younger counterpart's corpse.

Back at the second control point, the kids were setting up defenses. Double D had put another sentry gun and grabbed an ammo pack to put a dispenser inside the building that held the control point. Johnny was putting up stickybombs above the door to the right of the inside of the building. Nazz was over-healing the team, and Ed spun up his minigun.

The first BLU that came was, unsurprisingly, the BLU Scout. Seeing their defenses he hid in the room to the side of the tunnel he came out of, and waited for the rest of his team. He didn't have to wait for long, the Soldier came out of the tunnel directly across from the kids with the Heavy-Medic pair.

They fired at the kids inside. The Heavy let Double D's sentry fire at him, while the Soldier fired rockets at it. It was destroyed after a few rockets were launched.

"Screamin' Eagles," the kids heard him say.

The Heavy fired at Eddy who came and tried to distract him. Eddy ran around him and fired his scattergun. He landed a few hits before the BLU Scout came out and fired at Eddy. Eddy began to focus on keeping himself alive, so he fired back at the Scout. He succeeded in killing him, but the Heavy finally started shooting at him. At close range and with a lowered health, he didn't last long.

BLU Sniper, Engineer, and Pyro were seen on the bridge above the main fighting. The Sniper was lining up his shots, while the Engineer was building a sentry, but the kids weren't sure why the Pyro was up there.

Johnny tried to fire grenades up onto the bridge, but the Sniper killed him with a head shot before he was sub sequentially killed by a head shot of Rolf's, who was then blown up by a critical rocket from the Soldier.

"Jimmy, if you could..." Double D said.

"Okay," Jimmy responded. He cloaked and made his way across the battlefield. He made it across unscathed, so his cloaking didn't shimmer. Jimmy looked for the way up to bridge and disguised as the BLU Demoman. Soon, he was at the bridge and was about to Pyro when he heard someone cry out: "Bloody Spy".

The Pyro turned to his/her left and saw two Demomen. The disguised Jimmy was the closer one, while the real one was just coming onto the bridge behind him. The Pyro unleashed his/her fire on Jimmy and let him cook. The Demoman fired two grenades at the imposter and watched as the boys limbs blew off of his torso.

"Thanks mate," BLU Demoman said to the Pyro. He started to fire grenades into where the kids were at and eliminated Kevin.

Double D had just gotten enough metal to put down another sentry, but he was back stabbed by Spy, who then sapped his dispenser. Ed saw this and avenged his friend's death by firing at him with his minigun. The Spy was filled with bullet holes when Ed was done.

The BLU Scout had returned from spawn and ran close up to Ed and fired point blank at him. With the Demoman firing grenades at him to, he was soon killed.

Sarah started to burn the BLU Scout as a way to both avenge her brother, and vent anger that she still held against RED's Scout. Nazz quickly switched to healing Sarah, and they were in the same situation and earlier. This time, however, Sarah burned the Scout to a crisp but was killed by BLU Engineer's sentry gun, now a level two.

Nazz had received an Ubercharge from healing Sarah, but wasn't able to react in time to save her friend. Seeing she was the last defender on the point, she used the Ubercharge on herself. The wave of relief from the Ubercharge mixed with her stress at the position she was in made her feel nauseous. Being invincible, she stood on the control point to prevent the BLUs from capturing the point. She took this time to look for a way to stop them.

She noticed that the Soldier, Demoman, Heavy, and Medic were at the pass between the RED spawn and the second control point. Nazz understood what they were doing. They were guarding the control point until they could capture it. Johnny and Kevin occasionally made it over the BLU mercs with a rocket or stickybomb jump, but the sentry gun just killed them.

Nazz began to feel the Ubercharge effects wearing off. Seeing no other option, she ran over to BLUs holding off her team and switched to her bonesaw. Her plan was to weaken them enough for her team to break through and get to the control point. She cut the Heavy once before the Engineer's sentry locked onto her and fired. Her death was quick, but she did weaken her opponent.

Sadly, she couldn't do enough to help her friends. The BLU Pyro jumped down from the bridge and ran to the control point. He was soon joined by the arriving BLU Scout.

_"Alert, the control point is being contested,"_ the Administrator's voice said.

The BLU Sniper came out of the teleporter that the Engineer had put down and joined the Pyro and Scout, making the capture speed that of four mercenaries. With their team defenders holding off the kids, their capture was quick and easy.

_"You failed!"_ the Administrator's voice told the kids.

"Fall back!" Kevin ordered, running for the second stage. He and Eddy were the only ones to make it to the second stage without the BLUs killing them with their now-critical weapons.

They ran past the BLU spawn of the second stage and ran through the gates, right as they closed. The two were safe from the BLUs for now.

The other kids arrived soon and got ready to defend. Rolf ran up to the platform where the first control point was and aimed down at where the BLUs were going to come from. Ed was in the middle of the lane, ahead of the spun up his minigun and aimed at the gates, while Nazz healed him. Double D set up his sentry on the platform with Rolf. Johnny had set up stickybombs around the control point and joined Kevin and Eddy at the lone shack to the left of the soon-to-be battlefield. Sarah was on the second floor of the building near the control point getting ready for an ambush. Jimmy cloaked and got as near as he could to the gates, so he could prepare for his own surprise attack.

_"Five. Four. Three. Two. One!"_ The gates opened. Out came the BLUs.

The Scout and Demoman exited the gate that was on the far right side. The two would have made it undetected if Kevin hadn't spotted them and began to fire rockets at them. The rockets were deflected by the Pyro that had come out of the middle section of the gate. Kevin switched to his shotgun and fired at the Pyro. Johnny helped him by firing grenades, but the Pyro got support of his/her own when the Heavy stepped out of the gate with his minigun spinning. A barrage of bullets burst from the miniguns barrels and hit Kevin to draw his attention. Johnny shot grenades and Eddy fired his scattergun to help Kevin fight his opponent. While they focused on him, the Pyro slipped away with the Scout and Demoman, who had went through an alley.

The combination of rockets, grenades, and bullets had brought down the BLU Heavy's health down considerably, but then the BLU Medic came from the spawn and saved his ally with an Ubercharge.

"Take cover!" Kevin shouted. The three of them hid inside the shack. Kevin used the med-kit to heal his wounds.

They noticed the Heavy stopped firing and they waited. They knew they were trapped. The three hoped the Ubercharge would wear off before the pair got to them. It didn't.

The BLU Heavy appeared in the doorway and fired his minigun point blank at the defenseless kids. They fired back in hope they could somehow slow him down. They couldn't stop him and he slaughtered them.

It was that moment the Ubercharge wore off. Ed fired at the pair to try and avenge his friends. The Heavy retaliated with his own minigun. It was Heavy-Medic pair versus Heavy-Medic pair that ended quickly when Rolf put a bullet between the BLU Medic's eyes. He did the same with the Heavy. Ed and Nazz thanked Rolf and resumed to fight the BLU forces coming from the gates.

Rolf felt pain in his right side while he was still zoomed in and checked to see what was happening. Grenades were being fired at him, Double D, and the sentry.

"Fire-wielder Sarah!" Rolf called out. "Rolf is in need of your assistance."

Sarah looked out the door she was next to. She saw the grenades and started to deflect them, then ran out to confront the Demoman.

When she saw the trio of BLUs, she was confused. They were just standing there in the middle of the alley. The Demoman was firing grenades just seconds ago. Why would he stop?

The Scout used his bat to tap the ground and nodded his head down. Sarah looked down and, though no one could see it, she paled. There were four sticky bombs at her feet, one of which was glowing blue. She looked back up and to her horror she saw the Demoman press the detonator on his stickybomb launcher.

Sarah exploded and the three BLUs moved up to take the control point. The Demoman resumed firing grenades up at the REDs and their sentry. Double D was repairing the sentry gun while under fire. His constant beating was what was keeping the sentry from exploding, though it cost some of his health. When the Demoman was reloading, the Pyro and Scout ran up onto the platform.

The Pyro quickly set fire to Double D and his sentry. The sentry locked on to the arsonist, but it didn't do enough damage to kill him/her before being destroyed. The Pyro quickly focused on Double D, who pulled out his shotgun to fight back. It was a short fight, with the Pyro coming out on top.

The Scout was firing at Rolf, who was firing his SMG at him. The Scout got up close to him and fired two quick shots. Rolf dropped to the ground dead.

The Demoman joined them and they started to capture the control point. They had the capture speed of three mercs, but they were supposed to have that of four. The Scout and Pyro looked suspiciously at their ally. Suddenly, the Demoman fired his grenade launcher at the Pyro, but instead of a grenade, it was a bullet. The Demoman disappeared and was replaced by Jimmy.

Without his disguise, the control point recognized him and stopped the conversion. Jimmy continued to fire his revolver at the Pyro. He fired two more bullets and finished him/her off. The Scout then fired his scattergun a few times at Jimmy and killed him. The control point resumed turning blue and the Scout was all alone on the control point.

Ed couldn't fire at the Scout, because the edge of the building was blocking his aim, so he hoped someone would come and help. His help came when Johnny came out of the teleporter inside the building between the first control point and the mineshaft. He fired two grenades, but was unable to kill the Scout before the control point was secured.

The Scout jumped off the building and fired at Johnny. Johnny fought back, but the Scout could easily evade the grenades. It wasn't long before Johnny was killed. The Scout then used his bat to beat the teleporter to nothing but bolts and scraps.

Ed and Nazz were the only REDs left near the first control point. Nazz finally gained enough Uber particles to unleash an Ubercharge on Ed, and she did so. Ed was invincible and fired his minigun at the BLUs still at their gate. He was able to kill the Soldier and the Sniper before his Ubercharge wore off. He continued firing at them, but then he and Nazz were backstabbed by the Spy.

The BLUs moved onto the second control point, but the kids were able to fight them at the mines. Kevin fired rockets into the fray with no real target in mind. Eddy was firing his scattergun at random too. Sarah got as close as she could and lit as many of the BLUs as possible before she was killed by the Engineer, who had just set down a sentry gun. Rolf was trying to get headshots, but he was at a closer range than normal and could be shot more, making aiming more difficult.

Jimmy had moved behind the BLUs and began to sap the sentry. The Engineer switched his focus onto Jimmy and began to fight him, ignoring his sentry. The building soon exploded, but the Engineer paid it no mind. He continued to fire his shotgun at Jimmy who fired back with his revolver. Jimmy was soon killed, and the Engineer set up another sentry with the scrap metal from his first one and Jimmy's revolver.

The REDs were soon pushed out of the mines and into the open area before the second control point. They had the upper hand of an open area with more room to evade explosives and bullets, so long as they kept the BLUs in the mines. They had to keep an eye on the passageways that led into the area.

"We need Double D's sentry!" Eddy shouted while fighting the opposing Scout.

"No!" Kevin shouted back, shooting rockets at the Heavy-Medic pair. "We need him to stay near the control point if we can't hold them."

"Who died and made you leader?" Eddy shouted at him.

"Oh, so you want to be responsible for all of our lives?" Kevin yelled back at him.

The two started arguing and it distracted from doing what they were supposed to do. The BLUs that they were fighting gave the two disapproving looks.

"Hey will ya two focus?!" BLU Scout said. "It's no fun killin' ya if you don't put up a fight."

"Shut up, will ya," Kevin yelled at him.

"Little men fight us," Heavy said. "Not team."

"Keep your pants on fatso," Eddy shouted. "We'll fight ya when we're finished."

The three BLUs looked at each other and sighed. Heavy finished off Kevin and Scout did the same to Eddy.

"Pathetic," Scout said before moving on to fight Sarah. The Heavy-Medic pair fought against the Ed-Nazz pair.

Johnny and Rolf ran onto the ledge of the building between the mines and the second control point. Johnny fired grenades at the BLUs, while Rolf sniped. They were successful at holding them off for a minute, but then Rolf was backstabbed by the Spy. Johnny saw this and fought with his Eyelander. The Spy was no match for him. Johnny then had to fight Pyro that came out the room on the side of the building.

Johnny fired his grenades, but he knew it wouldn't work well. The Pyro deflected the first grenade, but couldn't deflect the second. Johnny noticed this and fired more grenades in hopes that he could do more damage before resorting to his sword. When the boy ran out of grenades in his launcher, he ran at his foe with his Eyelander. The Pyro countered with fire, but was killed by Johnny's melee.

Before the boy could run to get the nearby med-kit, the BLU Demoman ran out of the same room as the Pyro did and fired two grenades. The grenades detonated and blew up Johnny, who had already suffered damage from the Spy and Pyro. He moved up to the doorway leading to where the control point was.

He peaked around the corner and fired two grenades at the sentry Double D had. He hid behind the wall and did this again. The second time he destroyed the sentry and killed Double D. He then laid 5 stickybombs in the passage between the RED spawn and control point.

Eddy and Kevin came out of the spawn and saw the explosives. Kevin rocket jumped over them, leaving Eddy to deal with them. He ran back, pulled out his pistol, and destroyed two of them before the other three broke in half. Eddy looked up and saw Kevin smiling smugly over the Demoman's dead body. His celebration was cut short by the BLU Soldier firing rockets from the rock near the control point, which blew him up.

Eddy ran and fired at the Soldier, not to avenge Kevin, but to prove he could kill better than him. He fired three shots before he was close enough to beat him up with his bat.

"You ain't so special now, huh Shovelchin," Eddy said to himself.

"Neither are you moron."

"Huh?" Eddy said surprised. He looked behind him and saw the BLU Scout standing on the control point. "Why you little..."

He was about to fire at him, but he was punched from behind by the Heavy. Disoriented, Eddy was soon killed by the Heavy's fists.

"You are no match for me!" the Heavy said, indicating his domination over Eddy.

"Thanks pally," Scout said while capturing the control point.

Heavy grunted his acknowledgement and joined him on the control point. The Spy appeared near them and helped capture the objective. BLU Engineer moved up a level two sentry up where the Demoman had died, helping to slow down the kids.

Rolf killed the Engineer with a headshot. The sentry locked onto him and fired. Rolf was able to fire a fully charged shot at it before being killed. Johnny fired a grenade to finish destroy the sentry, then fired grenades onto the control point.

Ed and Nazz came out of the spawn to help. Ed ran past the wall that prevented him from hurting the BLUs, while Nazz healed their team. Double D joined Ed and set down a sentry. Jimmy appeared behind the Medic and killed him. He was beaten down by the Scout's bat. Sarah ran onto the control point and set the BLUs on fire. With the combined attacks, she was killed.

Unfortunately, the kids couldn't stop the mercenaries from capturing the control point. Their weapons glowed blue and they attacked the kids. They blocked off the passage to the next stage, so no one could escape this time. The kids were shot, blown up, and beaten to death, before being teleported to the next stage.

Double D dropped a teleporter entrance after exiting their spawn. The kids ran over the bridge and went to the the first control point of the last stage. Jimmy cloaked and waited next to the gates at the BLU spawn area. Double D put a sentry and dispenser behind the building between the control point and BLU spawn. He then put a teleporter exit inside the building. Sarah stood next to the sentry and prepared for an ambush. Johnny put sticky bombs on the control point and ran into the building to fire grenades. Kevin, Eddy, and Ed were at the space between the building and the spawn to attack. Nazz was switching her medi gun between the three. Rolf ran up into the building and looked out the window to use his sniper rifle.

_ "Five. Four. Three. Two. One."_

The gate's opened and the BLU's rushed out. The Heavy fired his minigun at Eddy. Eddy was killed, but not before dealing a good deal of damage to the Heavy. Kevin fired rockets at him and Ed used his minigun kill the Heavy.

The Soldier came out with the Demoman and fired their explosives at the kids. Rolf fired at the Soldier, but missed, alerting him. The Soldier fired rockets at the window but only hit the wall. The Demoman took over and lobbed two grenades into the window, killing Rolf. Soldier returned his attention to the kids on the front line and fired another rocket at Ed's feet, shooting him in the air a few feet. The Medic that was healing the Soldier was about to launch an Ubercharge, but Jimmy backstabbed him. The BLU Sniper attacked him from behind with his SMG. Jimmy was able to fire one bullet at him before he was killed.

Johnny fired grenades at the Sniper. Once he was killed, he attacked the Soldier and Demoman. The Demoman countered with his own grenades. Johnny was in a confined area so he ran out of the building to confront them in an open area. The Engineer put down a sentry after coming out and it was firing at Ed. Ed was killed from the bullets and explosions he suffered from. Nazz was killed next, then Johnny, and the BLUs moved up.

The Demoman fired a grenade at the wall, and it bounced off and hit Double D's mini-base. Double D was about to repair his buildings, but he was backstabbed by the Spy.

Sarah attacked the assassin with a burst of flame, then killed him with her fire axe. She switched her attention back to the grenades that the Demoman was firing and airblasted them back. The grenades exploded and dealt some heavy damage to the BLUs. Demoman stopped firing at her and fired at Kevin, who had just came out of the teleporter. Sarah set them on fire, but the Scout killed her.

Kevin fired rockets at the BLUs and eventually gibbed the Demoman and Scout. Eddy joined him after coming from the spawn room on foot. Eddy used his maneuverability to get the upper hand on the Soldier and killed him by jumping over and shooting him from behind.

"Man, Soldiers are so easy to kill," Eddy said.

"Not as easy as Scouts," Kevin said.

"Scouts are way tougher than your class," Eddy said.

"Then why do we get rocket launchers and have more health?" Kevin taunted.

"Shut up."

The two were distracting each other again and were an easy target for the Heavy that came out of the BLU spawn room. He didn't even try to get them to fight him. He just fired his shotgun until he got close enough to use his minigun. He made quick work of Eddy. Kevin fired the last rocket in his launcher before the Heavy killed him.

The Heavy went onto the control point and was soon joined by the Medic and Sniper. They captured the control point right as Johnny sticky bomb jumped at them.

The boy was too late to stop them, but he fired still fired grenades in hopes that he and Plank could buy their team enough time to set up defenses. He fired two grenades, and got close enough to attack with his Eyelander. Luckily for him, he decapitated the Heavy, but at a great cost to his health. The Medic used his bonesaw, and the Sniper used his SMG to destroy what little health Johnny had. After killing the boy, they joined the BLU Scout and Demoman.

The kids stopped them in the alley. Ed attacked them with Nazz healing him. He was soon able to kill the Scout and deal heavy damage to Demoman.

The Demoman fired grenades at him, and one of the explosions revealed the shimmering red silhouette of Jimmy. He switched his focus to the Spy, because if he lost focus of where he was now, he'd be at risk of being backstabbed after dealing with Ed. The Demoman exchanged his grenade launcher for his Eyelander to fight Jimmy. He found the boy quickly and decapitated him, but Ed killed him with his minigun.

The Medic was about to be Ed's next victim, but he was backstabbed by the BLU's own spy. Nazz quickly switched to her syringe gun and fired at the Spy. She pricked him to death, but the Medic did the same with her.

The BLU Sniper got on the platform and took aim. He zoomed in on Double D's level two sentry and fired a fully charged bullet. He saw Double D begin to repair it, so he let his rifle charge again, then fired at the boy's head, killing him in an instant. He was about to fire another round at the sentry, but Rolf had fired a bullet at his head.

Eddy, Sarah, and Kevin ran across the bridge to attack the incoming BLUs, while the rest of their team respawned. Sarah stood under the platform the BLU Sniper was on and waited for any enemies that get past Eddy and Kevin. Eddy and Kevin ran ahead and encountered the Engineer holding a toolbox and the Medic healing him.

The Engineer quickly reacted by throwing down his toolbox and switched to his shotgun. As the building began to rebuild, the kids saw that it was a level three sentry. They fired their primary weapons at it and destroyed it, but the Engineer was able deal heavy damage to the two boys in the process. Eddy killed the Engineer with a few rounds from his scattergun. Then he killed the Medic with a few more shots.

The next BLU that came was the Pyro. The Pyro tried to get as close as he/she could get, but Eddy could easily run out of range and Kevin rocket jumped behind him/her. Eddy fired at their foe with his scattergun while Kevin used his shotgun. The Pyro eventually set Kevin on fire before being killed.

Before he could get a med-kit, the Heavy came around the corner and fired at him. Their was a fair amount of distance between them, but Kevin was burning as well. The boy soldier fired rockets at him. He reduced the Heavy's health a great deal, but he was soon killed by all the bullets going through his body.

Eddy ran up close to the merc and fired at him with his scattergun. The Heavy still dealt damage to Eddy, but the point-blank blast did enough damage to kill the man. Eddy ran ahead to deal as much damage as he could to the BLUs before they made it to the final control point. Unfortunately, he was blown up by the Soldier before he could do much. The BLUs moved up and made it to where Sarah was.

The young pyro ambushed them and lit the Soldier, Scout, and Demoman on fire, before they fought back. She fought valiantly, but in the end, she was bludgeoned to death by the Scout's bat. Before she died, she saw the Engineer with a toolbox. When he set it down, it began to build a teleporter exit.

Double D came out and began to fix his sentry. The BLUs rounded the corner right as he fully repaired it. As his team fought their enemies, he moved his sentry up to the bridge. Once placed, he began to invest metal into upgrading it to level three. He put in the last metal needed before the Soldier, who was still on fire, fired rockets at him and killed the Ed boy. The sentry, however, was still intact.

Ed was firing at the Soldier who had killed his friend with Nazz healing him. The Soldier fired back at him with a rocket before he had to reload. Ed was able to kill him and deal damage to the other BLU mercs. He slowly moved up towards the BLUs with his minigun still firing away at them. Eventually, he was killed by the Sniper, who came through the teleporter. Before his demise, Ed had killed the Soldier, Scout, and he had damaged the opposing Heavy.

Rolf fired again at the Sniper and hit his head. The Sniper was down in an instant. Rolf fired and killed the Heavy right as he killed Nazz. Rolf then aimed at the Demoman who had just destroyed Double D's sentry. He fired and put a hole in his one eye. Rolf then had an encounter with the Engineer, who used his pistol to attack Rolf, then hid behind the corner. The Engineer kept doing this until Rolf was dead. He then placed a sentry of his own on the bridge to fight the kids.

Kevin came out of spawn and fired rockets at the BLUs. Only one of the rockets damaged them, the rest were deflected by the Pyro. The rockets that were deflected hit Johnny and Jimmy. He switched to his shotgun when he was out of rockets in his launcher and fired. He managed to kill the Pyro that was reflecting his rockets, then he began to attack the Engingeer. While he was focused on the Engineer, the sentry shot him repeatedly. Kevin switched his attention to the building, then switched his weapon to rocket launcher and reloaded. He didn't have enough time to reload a rocket before the sentry killed him however.

The sentry locked onto Jimmy and fired. He tried to disguise himself so the sentry would stop, but it was too late for him. The sentry then fired at Johnny, who fired grenades in return, from across the bridge. The grenades destroyed the building and Johnny survived, but not without losing almost half his health. He began to fire grenades at the Pyro who deflected them. Fortunately, none of them detonated near any of the kids. Johnny switched targets and fired at Medic who was healing him/her. The grenades went behind the Medic and exploded before the Pyro could airblast them away. Medic was soon gibbed and the Pyro began to use his flare gun. It was an exchange of projectiles, but in the end, the Pyro came out on top after setting Johnny on fire.

The BLUs eventually began to slowly make their way to the control point. The Heavy came back, as well as the Soldier and Pyro, and they were firing their weapons, dealing quite the damage to the kids. Medic and Demoman were behind them, healing the Heavy and lobbing grenades over their teammates' heads, respectively. The Scout ran ahead of them and fought Eddy with their scatterguns. The Sniper was on the platform behind them all and was making headshots left and right. Spy was hidden amongst the kids.

Sarah attacked them with her flamethrower and lit most of them on fire. They did some damage to her, but what delivered the final kill, was the Engineer's sentry, which had somehow gone to level three after he dropped the toolbox down.

"How did he do that?!" Eddy said after killing BLU Scout. "I'm no Engineer, but I know he can't just do that."

"He must have set the sentry gun down in the passageway," Double D explained, repairing his own sentry. "Then he upgraded it without fear of it being destroyed."

"Why can't you do that?" Kevin asked, firing at the Heavy.

"Their aren't many walls that I can hide behind to do that," Double D said. "And the places that I can hide behind either don't provide enough cover, or my sentry gun won't build for some odd reason."

As soon as he finished his sentence, the spy decloaked and killed him from behind. Then he put a sapper on his sentry gun. Johnny noticed this and attacked him with his Eyelander, decapitating the french man. He became more powerful with the collected head, and he could feel it too. He began to fire grenades at the opposing mercenary team. He began to regenerate health soon after he started launching grenades. He knew that Nazz was healing him, but he focused on holding off the BLUs.

Rolf was helping him by firing his sniper rifle from the walkway behind the rocket. He bodyshot the Soldier, then Johnny finished him with a decapitation. Sadly, the boy and his wooden pal were targeted by the sentry gun and was killed by bullets that followed by the rockets the building fired at them. Nazz ran away from the fight, but the Heavy killed her swiftly with his minigun. Rolf continued to fire at the BLUs until he was killed by a headshot from the Sniper.

Eddy ran up to the Heavy and fired at him. He landed a point-blank shot before the Heavy fired at him at close range as well. Eddy was killed and the BLUs began to move up.

The Heavy ran onto the control point with the Medic, Scout, and Demoman and began to fire at Kevin. The boy ran onto the control point and fired his rockets point blank at him. He only got to fire one rocket, but he did kill the Heavy, even if the explosion killed him too.

The BLUs were about to capture the control point when Jimmy decloaked behind the Scout and backstabbed him. The Demoman brought out his sword and attacked the boy. Jimmy lured him away from the control point and fired his pistol at him. He was able to kill the man, but the Engineer's sentry killed him with bullets and rockets.

The Engineer and Soldier moved up onto the control point and secured the control point and their victory. The remaining BLUs moved up to slaughter the defensless kids with critical-powered weapons and no mercy.

When the kids respawned in the locker room of stage one, they got ready for their mission at Badlands.

"Man, Jackson wasn't kidding when he said they'd be harder," Eddy said.

"Well what did you expect?" Kevin asked. "Like Jackson said, 'these opponents can adapt their strategy'. And they have way more experience than us."

"Hopefully their clones won't be as difficult to defeat as they are," Double D said.

"Plank says, 'I wouldn't bet on it,'" Johnny said.

"Rolf refuses to accept the block of wood's words," Rolf said. "Surely we can best their, how you say, clones, in another battle."

"Let's hope so," Eddy said. "'Cause we ain't gettin' paid unless we win."

The kids left the RED spawn after they were all done, and exited the former battleground. Jackson was their waiting for them beside his van.

"So how did it go?" he asked.

"We lost," Sarah said.

"Well, you still have a chance at victory at Badlands."

"Did you win?" Ed asked.

"Barely," Jackson said. "It hurts being stabbed, shot, burned, and blown up repeatedly. I'm just glad this job is safer than most of my other jobs, sort of."

"Let's just get to our next job," Eddy said.

"Alright, everybody in the van." As he walked over to the driver's door, Double D noticed he walked with a limp.

"Jackson, are you alright?" Double D asked.

"Huh? Yeah, my leg's just a little stiff from the mission," he explained. "Medic said I should feel better by the time I get to Hydro."

Everybody climbed into the van and they drove off to their next destination. When they arrived, the kids went into their spawn and got ready to battle.

"We have to win this one," Eddy said. "We need the money if we're going to get home, then we can use what's left to buy enough jawbreakers to last a lifetime."

"Eddy's right, about the getting home part at least," Double D said. "If we win this battle, we'll have $6750 to spend towards making the inter-dimensional teleporter."

"So let's win this," Kevin said.

They all got ready for the gate's to open. They were doing King of the Hill. Once the gate's were open, they charged out.

About five minutes later, they came out of the RED spawn room, defeated.

"That was a lot quicker than I expected," Double D said.

"I'm surprised they could switch out members of their team," Eddy said. "If we had more Scouts, we could have captured the point faster."

"If we had more Engineers, we could have defended it better once we had it," Kevin said.

"Hey, where's Jackson?" Nazz asked.

They looked around. Jackson and his van were nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe Hyrdo's like Dustbowl," Jimmy said.

"It would certainly take longer than King of the Hill," Double D said.

They talked amongst themselves and waited for a few hours before Jackson arrived.

"What took ya?" Eddy asked, a little upset.

"Have you seen Hydro?" Jackson said. "Their are four areas where we have to capture the BLUs control point while defending our own. After all four are captured, we have to attack their base. We had so many close calls on offense and defense. On the bright side, we got overtime pay."

"So that's it for today?" Sarah asked.

"Yep, the rest of the day, you can either relax or train."

"I'd think we could use some time to rest," Double D said.

"Fine with me, I've got to get dinner started," Jackson said.

When they got back home, Jackson went inside and started to get dinner ready, while the kids unloaded their equipment in the barn.

"We're not off to a very good start," Nazz said.

"Yeah, so what are we supposed to do?" Eddy asked. "We don't have any money to buy Australium."

"We could find out where we can get Australium," Double D suggested. "With it being a rare material, I don't think we can just buy it anywhere."

"We could go to Australia," Ed said.

"It is possible," Double D said. "Australium can only be found there, but considering the price of Australium and the cost of travel, it would be expensive."

"Plank says, 'Jackson might know something,'" Johnny said.

"It's worth a shot," Sarah said.

"We'll ask him at dinner," Double D said. "In the meantime, I'll do whatever research I can to create the blueprints." He went into the house to get books that could help him.

"Let's hope he can find something," Kevin said. "I want to get back home."

"Rolf longs to get back to his family," Rolf said.

"We all do Rolfy-boy," Eddy said.

They began to talk about how they missed home and only stopped when Jackson called them in for dinner. The kids went inside and got their dinner, home-made cheese pizza.

They all sat down in the living room to eat. Everyone but Double D watched TV while they ate. Double D was searching through Jackson's books, trying to find something that could help them. He so far hadn't found anything, but he hadn't given up hope.

"Hey Jackson," Double D said. "You wouldn't happen to know where we could get enough Australium for our teleporter?"

"Other than going to Australia and mining it yourselves?" Jackson said. "You could try the black market or buy stuff from Mann Co. Some of their items use Australium."

"The black market would be a good place to start," Double D said. "I'll make a note of that."

"Do you know where you can improve?" Jackson asked.

"Pardon?" Double D said.

"You lost both matches on your first day," Jackson said. "That's nothing to be ashamed of, but do know what you did wrong?"

"Well, Eddy and Kevin did argue frequently," Double D said.

"Over what?"

"They argued over if I should have moved my sentry up to defend."

"You should have," Eddy said.

"We needed him to keep his sentry back there," Kevin said.

"I see what you mean," Jackson said to Double D. "Would your sentry be out in the open and were there ways to get past it if you did move it?"  
"Yes, if I put it where they were, explosives could easily reach it, and the BLUs could go through the caves to get around it."

"Exactly, you should have kept it where it was, unless you can find a better place. You'll find more key areas to put sentries when you have more experience. What else did they argue about?"

"They argued about whose class was better."

Jackson facepalmed. "Haven't we been over this? No class is better than the other. Scouts are faster and capture quicker, but they have low health. Soldiers, while they use a rocket launcher, have slower speed and reload times. Anyone who thinks one class is better than the others are idiots. If this was true, then there would only be that class."

"I guess you're right," Kevin said.

"On the topic of argueing, how much communication was going on in your team?"

"There were some communication problems," Double D said.

"You need to know where your team is and what they're doing so you can coordinate your attacks.

"Let's say for example, Rolf's aiming his Sniper at a Heavy's head. He's about to shoot, but then Jimmy backstabs his target. Rolf wasted time aiming at the Heavy's head, when Jimmy was going to kill him anyways.

"Also, if you know where your team is, you could use them as a distraction while you flank you enemies."

Jackson continued to give them advice while they ate their pizza. He also told them where they were going to fight tomorrow: 2Fort, Fastlane, and Freight. Then he said to them to get ready for work.

Before they went to the barn, Eddy asked, "How'd you make this pizza so great?"

"One of my contracts took me to Italy," Jackson said. "After I did that job, a shop owner wanted me to take out the local gang that'd been terrorizing the neighborhood. He didn't have much, but when I tasted his pizza, I said he could just give me the recipe as payment."

"Interesting," Double D said.

Once the kids were in the barn, Eddy asked Double, "Hey Sockhead, did you find anything?"  
"No Eddy, I didn't," Double D said. "But maybe examining my own teleporter could yield results."

"Make sure you get enough sleep Double D," Nazz said. "We're going to need you tomorrow."

"I will Nazz."

Everyone but Double D went to sleep. They hoped their next match wouldn't be like their first two official fights. They were off to a bad start, but they knew they would get home eventually.

_Earlier, at BLU Spawn, after the kids' defeat._

"Man, that was unfreakanbalievable," Scout said. "That was way too easy of a win."

"Thought you liked winnin' mate," Sniper said.

"Yeah, when they actually put up a fight," Scout said. "They were hardly a challenge."

"It's true," Heavy said. "Little men and women much easier to fight than clones."

"Vut vreally zurprizes me iz zat zhey zent children to vight us," Medic said.

"War is for men, not children," Soldier said.

"Besides, it's bad for our reputation if we're just killing kids," Scout said.

"I think we can fix that," Engineer said, playing his guitar.

"How do ya think we're gonna do that, huh Hardhat?"

"With this," Engineer said. He reached into his toolbox and pulled out an arm.

"Uh, how's that supposed to do anything?" Scout said a little disturbed. He knew that Soldier kept heads, but he was a little crazy. Engineer was sane.

"They wanna send children to a man's fight. Well, we'll send children to even the stakes. It's only fair."

"And how the bloody arm help?" asked the Demoman.

"Ve clone it," Medic said catching on. "Ve gazer up za pieces, then ve create clones of zem like our own."

"Exactly," Engineer said. "Think you can do it doc?"

"Ja," he said. "Zey'll be vready by tomorrow."

AN: Hey, hoped you guys like this chapter, because it was difficult keeping track of 18 people for as long as the match was. I planned the kids to lose, because they're going against the mercenaries who have the most experience and could adapt their strategy. These fight chapters are hard, but you fans make it worth the effort. I would have done Badlands, but I was tired from doing Dustbowl and I needed a break. Plus, I think Dustbowl was long enough for you. If you could give me a review on where I could improve on, or how much you like this story, I'd appreciate it.


	6. 2Fort

**Chapter 6**

The kids woke up and got ready for work. 2Fort was closer to Jackson's home then Dustbowl, so the kids weren't as rushed.

Once they were all ready, they got in Jackson's van and drove off.

"First up for you kids is 2Fort," Jackson told them. "It's basically capture-the-flag, but with a suitcase with their plans inside instead of flags. Capture their intelligence, while guarding your own pretty much sums it up."

"We know how capture-the-flag works," Eddy said. "We've done it in gym."

"Well I don't think that your school uses lethal weapons and landmarks for gym class," Jackson said.

"Also, we had a team there yesterday. According to the intel they picked up, BLU has new types of clones. We don't know how "new" they are, since our team couldn't steal all their intelligence. You're going to have to wing it."

"We'll do our best," Double D said.

"I know you will," he said reassuringly.

"Hey isn't 2Fort where we first came here?" Kevin asked.

"I believe your right Kevin," Double D said.

"Then you know some of the map," Jackson said. "If their clones are as new as I think they are, then they should be clueless about the map's layout. This will give you an advantage."

Eventually they stopped at 2Fort, and the kids got out.

"Wait," Jackson said. He reached into the glovebox and pulled out a bulky cell phone, a napkin, and a pen. He wrote something on the napkin and handed it and the phone to Eddy. "Here's my number. Keep that at spawn and call me when you're done. I'll try to get a clone to take my place in my battle, then I'll come pick you up. I don't want to make you wait like yesterday."

He drove off and the kids went into their base. They found the spawn room near the courtyard and quickly got ready.

Once they had everything in order, they began to talk about their strategy.

"I'll find our intelligence and put a sentry up to defend it," Double D said.

"Good," Kevin said. "Rolf, go to the battlements, I saw a perfect place for you to snipe.

"Johnny, you and Ed go to the bridge and fight off any BLUs that try to cross over. Nazz you go with them and make sure they're healed.

"Sarah, stay in the base and kill anyone who gets in. With all the corners, I'm sure you can make plenty of ambushes. Make sure to check for spies.

"Jimmy, you sneak into their base and assassinate as many BLUs as you can. Make sure you kill Snipers and Engineers. We also need you to sap the buildings they'll have where their intel is.

"Eddy, you and I will go into their base and steal their intelligence. You'll carry it while I cover you. Everyone understand?"

They all nodded to show they knew what to do.

_"Five. Four. Three. Two. One!"_

The kids burst from the spawn into a room that looked very similar to the spawn room, but this one had a resupply locker. Quickly realizing this was just the resupply room, they went through the gate and into the rest of their base.

Double D went down the stairs to where the intelligence was, while the other kids went to where Kevin instructed them.

Sarah went into the courtyard to patrol the lower level for the BLUs that would come.

Ed, Eddy, Kevin, Johnny, Rolf, Nazz, and Jimmy went to the battlements. Ed, Johnny, Nazz, and Jimmy jumped down from them. Ed and Johnny guarded their side of the bridge with Nazz healing them. Jimmy jumped into the water to infiltrate the BLU base through the sewers.

Eddy, Kevin, and Rolf stayed behind and hid in the shack that was on the battlements.

"You ready?" Kevin asked.

"Yep," Eddy said.

"What's this?" Rolf asked, looking through his scope. "How dare they mock Rolf with some phoney-bologna imposter!"

"What are you talking about man?" Kevin asked.

"Look," Rolf said, handing him the rifle.

Kevin took the weapon and looked through the scope.

"What the heck?" he said.

"Let me see," Eddy said. He took the gun and zoomed in.

What he saw was their Sniper. It was Rolf. He looked exactly like him in every aspect but the outfit. Where Rolf had red on his uniform, this one had blue. The fake Rolf spotted the three. Luckily, they ducked before he fired.

"Was that a spy?" Eddy asked.

"No way," Kevin said. "Why would a spy disguise himself as one of us in a BLU uniform?"

"Jackson said they had new clones," Eddy said. "I think they cloned us."

"Why would they do this?" Rolf said.

"Don't know," Kevin said. "We'll figure it out later. We still have to complete the mission."

"Should we tell the others?" Eddy asked.

"No," Rolf said, peeking his head out the window.

"Why not?" Kevin asked.

"They have already found out," Rolf said.

Kevin and Eddy looked out the window to see what Rolf was talking about. Ed and Johnny were fighting off the clones of themselves. The two real ones were shocked about this and weren't fighting at their full potential. The BLU Johnny fired another grenade that killed the RED one. Ed was soon gunned down by his clone. Nazz was in complete shock at seeing her friends killed by their clones, and was an easy target for the BLU Ed. The BLU Nazz began to heal her teammates from what little damage they sustained.

Eddy, Kevin, and Rolf snapped out of their own shock when they saw their friends demise. They fired at the BLU kids and killed them with little injury to themselves. The three were reluctant to kill anymore of them, because it was almost like they were killing their own friends.

"We must warn the others," Rolf said.

"Even if we did, I don't think they're willing to fight them," Eddy said. "I didn't want to do it. It was like I was killing Ed."

"Well we've got to do something," Kevin said. "If we don't kill them, we won't get paid, and if we don't get paid, we can't get the Australium to make the teleporter."

Suddenly, they heard a loud gunshot. Eddy and Kevin saw Rolf fall to the floor dead. They looked in the direction the sound came from and saw the Rolf clone reloading. Eddy ducked, but it was too late for Kevin. His helmet did almost nothing to stop the bullet.

"I don't have to kill them," Eddy said to himself. "I just have to steal their intelligence."

He took a deep breath and then vaulted through the window onto the ground. He crossed the bridge. The bridge's roof protected him from BLU Rolf's bullets and into the base.

Eddy ran into the courtyard and double-jumped onto the staircase. He then went down the stairs that led to the basement and passed the BLU spawn room.

The BLU Pyro, who he assumed was a clone of Sarah, came out of the spawn room and tried to attack him. Eddy fired his scattergun at her. He didn't feel as bad about killing her since he didn't like her. The BLU Sarah was soon killed, but by a bullet, not a scattershot shell.

Eddy looked behind him and saw Jimmy holding his revolver up.

"I can't believe you did that," Eddy said.

"Why?" Jimmy asked. "It was just a Pyro."

"Jimmy, that was a clone of Sarah."

"What?!"

"BLU cloned all of us. I'm not sure why, but their intelligence should tell us. Have you sapped the sentry yet?"

"No."

"Then go do it. I'll come in when it has a sapper on it and help kill BLU Double D."

The two ran down one of the hallways that led into the intellingence room. They stayed behind a corner and listened. They heard two quick beeps, indicating that BLU Double D has a level two sentry up.

Jimmy disguised himself as BLU Johnny and cloaked. He walked inside and hid behind BLU Double D. He uncloaked, but alerted him. Fortunately for Jimmy, he backstabbed him before he could react. The sentry turned to lock-on to Jimmy, but he was quick enough to place a sapper on it.

Eddy ran into the room and grabbed the intelligence. They heard over the administrator's voice.

_"We have taken enemy's intelligence."_

"Come on!" Eddy said.

They ran out of the intelligenc room, and up the stairs that led to the second floor. The two encountered the BLU Ed. Since Eddy was the more important of the two, BLU Ed focused on him.

While, the minigun was spinning up, Eddy double-jumped over his head and ran towards the batlements. Ed's clone turned towards him and his gun fired, but Eddy was behind cover.

Jimmy switched to his knife up to backstab the imposter. He slashed BLU Ed's back as he drew the knife up, then he brought it down and stabbed him. Jimmy followed after Eddy and resisted the urge to puke. He had just killed a clone of his best friend's brother. It was one thing to kill a stranger, but to kill a person you knew was harder on the boy.

Eddy had just crossed the bridge and was about to enter his own base when BLU Rolf had fired at him. The bullet entered his head and obliterated his brain.

Jimmy saw this and stopped on the bridge. The BLU Rolf hadn't seen him yet, so he disguised himself as a BLU Eddy. He ran towards the intelligence and hoped he wouldn't be fired at until it was too late. He grabbed the briefcase and quickly made it inside of his base.

Just as he made it inside, he saw an exact clone of himself with a mask on walk into the room that was connected to the courtyard. It was obviously the BLU Spy, or in this case BLU Jimmy, that was disguised as him. He followed him and saw he was about to backstab Sarah.

Jimmy fired his revolver at the imposter and alerted Sarah. Sarah turned around and began to burn the spy, not knowing it was a clone of Jimmy.

The two quickly killed the spy. His disguise was removed and Sarah was shocked at what she saw. She saw the corpse of a clone her best friend lying in front of her. She moved her gaze between the clone and the real Jimmy.

"They cloned us Sarah," Jimmy explained.

"Mmph?" Sarah said.

"What?" Jimmy asked.

Sarah took off her mask and said, "How?" She then started to cough a little.

"I don't know. Eddy said that their intelligence should tell us why."

Sarah coughed even more. "Let's hope so."

"Are you alright?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah, I think it's just the asbestos in the mask. Now get the intelligence to out of here."

"Right." Jimmy ran off to secure the intelligence he and Eddy stole.

As Sarah put her mask back on, she heard a small explosion. It was followed by a larger explosion and she was pushed back. She looked at where it came from and saw the BLU Kevin firing rockets at her. She deflected the rest of the rockets that came her way, but her foe pulled out a shotgun and fired at her. Sarah pulled out her shotgun, but the Kevin clone killed her. It was a losing battle anyway. He had caught her off guard, and was out of range of her flamethrower.

Jimmy was down in the basement and was on his way to deliver the briefcase. He entered the room with their own intelligence and put the briefcase he stole into a drawer in the desk. He locked the drawer and took a break to catch his breath.

"Nicely done Jimmy."

"Huh," Jimmy said. He looked up and saw Double D with a level three sentry and dispenser in the corner between the two hallways. He was in the perfect spot for an Engineer. The only thing that could easily reach him and destroy his machines was a spy.

"What happened to Kevin and Eddy?" he asked. "They were the ones that were supposed to grab the intelligence."

"I don't know what happened to Kevin, Eddy was alone when he went into the basement. I was down there to sap the sentry. Eddy grabbed the intelligence and we ran out of there. On the way back he was killed by the Sniper. I picked up the intelligence and ran down here."

"Well at least we have one part of their intelligence," Double D said.

"They cloned us Double D," Jimmy said.

"What?"

"They cloned us. The Sniper that killed Eddy was a clone of Rolf. The Engineer that was guarding their intelligence was a clone of you."

"Why would they clone us?"

"I don't know. Their intelligence should tell us why."

Suddenly, Jimmy was attacked by rockets. He quickly fired a bullet in retaliation, but was killed by a direct hit. The BLU Kevin ran into the room thinking that he eliminated the only opposition there was. Double D's sentry locked-on to him and killed him before he could get to their briefcase.

Double D immediately felt the guilt that came from this. It was almost like he had just killed the real Kevin. He hoped that he could find a way to get past this guilt, or at least get used to it.

The real Kevin had just spawned in the main spawn room from a battle with the BLU Johnny. He had inflicted enough wounds that after he died, Nazz finished him with her syringe gun. He saw Eddy talking with Ed.

"Hey!" Kevin shouted. "We're supposed to be working."

"Do you know how hard it is killing them?" Eddy said. "It feels like I'm killing the real thing."

"I know it's hard, but there's nothing that we can do about it," Kevin said. "We've got to keep working."

"There's gotta be a way to get past this guilt. It's driving me crazy."

"It's not like we can just think of something right now. Our pay's at stake and if we don't get paid, we can't get back home. So, unless you have an idea to make this easier, we have to kill them."

"We could call Jackson," Ed said.

"What could he do?" Eddy asked. "It's not like he can tell us how to make killing them easier."

"Or could he," Kevin said. He went to the phone and dialed Jackon's number.

"How exactly do you think he can?" Eddy said.

"He's had to kill clones of his team. Maybe he has some advice."

Eddy thought about this. "Ed, you just had a good idea."

"It's ringing," Kevin said.

Kevin, Ed, and Eddy gathered around the phone and they waited.

"Hello," Jackson said from the other phone.

"Jackson, it's Kevin."

"You're done already?"

"No, we need some help," Eddy said.

"You better have a good reason for my advice then," he said, a hint of anger in his voice. "We're at the last control point, and I had to commit suicide to get to the phone."

"Why?" Eddy asked.

"I was too far away to make it on foot. The only reason I knew it was ringing was because Engineer came from spawn through a teleporter and told me. Only way I could get to the phone fast enough was to burn my face off with my flamethrower and respawn.

"So what do you need help with?"

"The new BLU clones are clones of us," Kevin said.

"Really? Why would they do that?" he said more calmly.

"We're not sure. We'll figure it out later. Right now, we're having trouble killing them because they look like our own team and it's like we're killing the real ones."

"You didn't seem to have a problem killing the BLUs who were real people."

"That was different. We didn't know them. We know the people the clones are based on. How do you do it?"  
"I'm not really close to the rest of my team, so that helps. If I were to give you any advice, I'd say to take your anger out on them."

"What?" Eddy said.

"I'm sure you all have some anger towards each other. When you're fighting a clone, remember a time when the real person made you angry. Use that memory as a reason to willingly kill the clone.

"The same thing works on fighting a clone of yourself. Deal with your inner demons, so to speak. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Ed said.

"Good. I've got to go. BLUs pushing us back. Good luck." He hung up.

"We've got to tell the others," Kevin said.

_ "You've failed. The enemy has captured our intelligence," _the administrator's voice said on the intercom.

"We better hurry," Kevin said.

The three split up and told the others what Jackson said. By following his advice, the kids found it much easier to kill their clones.

Unfortunately, they still had trouble getting to the BLUs intelligence. They tried their best, but their enemies put up a solid defenese. The kids were doing the same and prevented them from taking it anymore. It stayed a stalemate like this for a few minutes.

Eddy and Sarah had just respawned in the secondary spawn room after being killed by BLU Johnny and BLU Jimmy, respectively.

"Sarah, I need you to protect me while I grab the intel," Eddy said.

Sarah took her mask off to speak. "I need to watch for BLUs in our base, bonehead."

"We're both offensive classes," Eddy said. "We attack and steal their intelligence, not guard our own, that's what we have Ed, Johnny, and Double D for."

"But Kevin said..."

"Who are you gonna listen to? Kevin, or the guy who can get the intelligence here the fastest? Besides, Jimmy helped me, so why can't you?"

Sarah thought this over for a moment. "Alright." The two ran out of the spawn room and towards the battlements. "You know, sometimes I think you'd make a better spy than Jimmy."

"Yeah, so do I," Eddy said. "If you don't like it, take it up with the author."

They jumped down from the battlements, then jumped into the water below the bridge. The two swam towards the sewer system under the BLU base, then ran through the dog-legged sewers and ran up the stairs.

Once they made it to the ground level, they encountered the BLU Ed. Eddy and Sarah surprise attacked him. He quickly turned and spun his minigun up. Eddy fired his scattergun, and Sarah fired her flare gun while the minigun was still turning. While the two did damage to him, a rocket was fired at him from his right side and gibbed the minigun wielding teen.

Kevin came from the front entrance and saw his teammates.

"Sarah!" he said. "You're supposed to be in our base looking for spies. What are you doing here?"

"She's guarding me while I get the intel," Eddy said.

"That's my job," Kevin said. "Her's is to help guard the intelligence."

"Then why weren't you with me?" Eddy asked mockingly.

Sarah took off her mask to talk to them. "Does it really matter? The faster we get the intelligence to our base, the faster we get paid. Now are you gonna argue or get the job done?"

"All three of us are offensive classes," Kevin said, considering what she said. "Fine. Sarah, you and I will guard Eddy while he gets the intel. Agreed?"

The other two agreed with him and set off for the intelligence. They went into the room connected to the courtyard. The three quickly killed off the BLU Nazz and Sarah that were in there. They ran up onto the platform and traveled down the stairs that led to the basement.

They encountered the BLU Ed again, who had just came out of the spawn room down in the basement. The four of them were in close-quarters, so the REDs were very effective. Ed had less room to escape Kevin's rockets, Eddy could get more shot pellets to hit him, and Sarah was the best at close range. With their combined firepower, they eliminated the clone before his minigun could fire.

They continued on and stopped at where the two hallways led into the intelligence room.

"They probably have another sentry put up," Kevin said. "You two go down that hallway, I'll go down the other. When I yell 'now', you two come go into the room, get as far away from the sentry as you can, and start firing at it. I'll go in and get closer to the sentry, so it will target me first. I'll fire rockets at it and Double Dweeb. If we're lucky, we can destroy both of them and stay alive. Then we get the intelligence and book it."

"Got it," Eddy and Sarah said.

The three of them got into positions. Seeing that the sentry wasn't at the desk, they moved up to the mouth of the hallway. They could hear three beeps coming from the corner that they couldn't see. Sarah and Eddy looked at Kevin for the signal.

"Now!" Kevin shouted.

The REDs ran out from their positions and attacked the BLU Double D and the sentry. The sentry locked-on to Eddy first since he was the first one out, but it switched to Kevin when he became closer.

Kevin fired two rockets at the building before it could begin firing. The sentry fired it's twin Gatling guns and four rockets. Kevin survived the bullets, but would have died if Sarah hadn't airblasted the rockets into the wall. The splash damage destroyed the building, nearly killed Kevin, and hurt Sarah and Double D's clone.

Sarah burned the clone and only suffered a few hits from his shotgun. The imposter fell to the ground as a smoldering corpse.

"Kevin, there's a med-kit in the other room," Sarah said. "You're gonna need it if you're gonna protect Eddy."

"Got it," Kevin said.

Eddy ran over to the desk and grabbed the intelligence. They heard the message that alerted his team that he has it.

"Let's go," he said.

He and Sarah ran out of the room. Kevin joined them and they ran up the stairs that led to the BLU's main spawn.

The BLU Kevin ran out of the spawn and attacked them. The two kid soldiers fired rockets at each other. Sarah helped the real Kevin by deflecting the BLU rockets. Eddy used his scattergun to deal damage and help his team. Soon the Kevin clone was killed.

"They probably have people down at the bridge and a Sniper at the battlements," Kevin said. "We'll have to go through the sewers."

Eddy and Sarah agreed, and they ran to the room that had the grating floor. They jumped down and continued running towards the staircase leading to the sewer system. Once there, they waited for Sarah to grab the med-kit, then the group ran out into the pipes to deliver the stolen item.

_"Alert, the enemy has taken our intelligence,"_ the administrator's voice said.

"Hope our team can put up a better defense than the BLUs could," Kevin said.

Johnny was in the basement doing his best to kill the BLU Eddy that has their intelligence. The grenades he was firing were bouncing off the walls and exploding in mid-air, doing little damage to the scout.

BLU Eddy wasn't trying to put up a fight, he was just focusing on getting out. He tried to run up the stairs that led to the second floor, but Johnny was firing sticky bombs at them. The bombs detonated and damaged the carrier, so he turned around for the med-kit. Unfortunately for him, Johnny was in the way.

The Eddy clone charged at Johnny with his scattergun. He fired a grenade at him, but he jumped over it and only took a small amount of splash damage. The Demoboy switched to his Eyelander to fight this enemy at close range.

Johnny swung his sword as the clone fired his scattergun. The sword decapitated the imposter, but his gun had fired a shot at point blank and had severely hurt Johnny.

The boy heard something hiss. It sounded like it was someone saying 'heads'. He ignored it and picked up the med-kit and ammo pack for himself. Then he laid down a few sticky bombs around the dropped intelligence, since he couldn't pick it up himself.

He hid in the hallway across from the machines built-into the wall and waited for anyone to come and take the intelligence. He didn't have to wait long, for someone was shooting at his sticky bombs. He couldn't see who it was, but he didn't care. Johnny fired grenades at the machines and they bounced off. They exploded near whoever was firing at the sticky bombs.

Johnny came out of hiding and fired grenades directly at the BLU. Sadly, it was the BLU Sarah that he was fighting, and she easily airblasted the explosives back at him. He switched to his Eyelander and ran at her in a desperate attack.

He braced himself for the hot flames to come, but all that came was a rush of cool wind. He realized that the BLU Sarah had airblasted him backwards. He saw her switch to her flare gun, and she fired. Johnny caught on fire, but he charged again.

This time, he saw her switch to her switch to her fire axe. It was going to be a melee battle, where Johnny had a larger weapon. Johnny swung his sword at her, and she used her axe. They reduced each other's health greatly, but Johnny was on fire. This worked in the clone's favor and she slew the boy.

After defeating him, she picked up the briefcase and ran back up to the second floor.

Eddy, Sarah, and Kevin had just came down the stairs that started at the courtyard.

"Kevin," Eddy said. "Go after her and get our intelligence."

"I'm on it," Kevin said.

He ran after the BLU Sarah who had stolen their intelligence. He kept running until he made it to the battlements where he saw her set Rolf on fire.

Kevin fired rockets at her. She jumped down to the ground and set Ed, who was guarding the bridge, on fire. Nazz was healing him, so she didn't do too much damage. Kevin jumped down after her and fired another rocket.

The BLU Sarah jumped, but there was no way she could jump over the rocket. Instead, she aimed her flamethrower down and used her airblast as the rocket came to her. The rocket deflected down to the ground and exploded, sending the BLU Sarah across the gap. She landed on her side of the bridge. She waved mockingly at Kevin, then ran inside her base to deliver the stolen briefcase.

Kevin stood there with his mouth agape. "Did you see that?" he asked.

"Yeah," Nazz said. "She used your rocket to escape."

"Can she do that?" Ed said.

Before Kevin could answer him, he was shot by the BLU Rolf. He fell to the ground with a hole in his forehead.

Nazz and Ed focused their attention back to the bridge. Soon they were joined by Johnny.

"Did we protect the intelligence?" Johnny asked.

As an answer to his question, the Administrator said, _"You've failed, the enemy has secured our intelligence."_

"Guess not," Johnny said.

The two teams continued to stay deadlocked. It was getting to the final few minutes and the kids needed to steal the last piece of intelligence if they wanted to get paid for this match.

Eddy and Nazz just came out of the secondary spawn room. Nazz was about to run back to the bridge to help Ed, but Eddy stopped her.

"Nazz," he said. "I want you to help me. You can follow and heal me while I grab the intel. Once I have it, you can Ubercharge me and we can get out of there without a scratch."

"Eddy," Nazz said. "I can only overheal you. If I go with you, I'm going to need someone to protect me."

"We could get Ed," Eddy said. "He can protect both of us, and you can over heal him too."

"Fine," she said. "Let's go get Ed."

Eddy ran ahead as Nazz began to overheal him. They went to the battlements, then jumped down onto the ground.

Ed was firing his minigun at the BLU Johnny. The real Johny was with him firing grenades at his BLU clone. Eddy helped him by firing his scattergun at the imposter. Nazz helped further by healing Ed.

Once they killed him, then the BLU Eddy that came out, Eddy and Nazz explained their plan.

"But guys," Ed said. "I need to stay at the bridge."

"Ed," Eddy said. "If you protect us while we get the intel, we'll be one step closer to getting home and to your comics, monster movies, and gravy."

The gravy part was what really convinced him to join them. The three ran down the bridge and towards the BLU base.

"Hey!" Johnny yelled out. "Where ya guys goin'?"

"We're going to steal the intelligence," Eddy called back.

"Can me and Plank come?" he asked.

"Sorry Johnny," Nazz said. "Someone has to protect the bridge."

The three went through the right gate and into the base. Nazz switched her medi-beam between the two constantly. They continued running and went straight into the hallway that led into the courtyard. They ran up the steps that brought them to the platform.

The BLU Ed came out of their main spawn room and attacked them. Ed countered with his minigun, while Nazz healed him. Eddy helped by firing his scattergun at him. Soon, the clone of Ed stopped firing and ran back into his spawn room.

"Let's go before he gets back!" Eddy said.

Ed, Eddy, and Nazz quickly ran down the stairs that led to the basement. They went through the hallway that was closer to the spawn room and listened for a sentry. They heard three beeps in rapid succession. Since they couldn't see the sentry from their perspective, they assumed that it was in the corner across from the desk.

"Do you have an Ubercharge?" Eddy asked Nazz.

"Almost," Nazz said.

"Get ready to use it on Ed," Eddy said. "He's going to have to destroy the sentry and kill the Engineer."

"But what about getting the intelligence out of here?" Nazz asked.

"We'll have to do it without the Ubercharge. We can't steal it with that sentry there."

"Alright," Nazz said. She switched her medi-gun to Eddy and started to heal the wounds he revieved from fighting the BLU Ed. "I'm fully charged. Are you ready Ed?"

"Yes," Ed responded.

Nazz switched back to Ed and they ran out. Just as Ed entered the room, Nazz used her Ubercharge to protect him. Ed roared as he fired at the turret with his minigun. The sentry fired rockets and bullets back at him, but they were in vain. The machine was destroyed and Ed focused on the BLU Double D. The kid Engineer tried to escape by running through the hall next to him, but he was too late.

Eddy ran into the room and grabbed the intelligence. All three of them then escaped out the hallway that the BLU Double D tried to use.

They were attacked by the BLU Ed again. He had already spun his minigun up and was firing at them. Nazz and Eddy got behind the real Ed and used him as a shield. Nazz healed Ed as he fired back at his clone. Eddy used his scattergun to help counter the BLU.

The BLU Ed had an advantage since he spun up his minigun before he fought them. He killed the real Ed, but only after sustaining a massive amount of damage to himself. His victory was short-lived, however, as Eddy fired at him once and destroyed what little health he had left.

_"Alert, the enemy has taken our intelligence,"_ the Administrator said over the intercom.

"C'mon!" Eddy said.

Nazz began to heal Eddy, and the two ran up the stairs that led to the second floor.

The BLU Kevin came out of the BLU spawn room, but they didn't care. Eddy had to get the briefcase to their base before the BLUs did the same, and fighting the boy Soldier would only slow him down.

They ran out to the battlements, with the Kevin clone firing rockets at them. Eddy fired a quick round at the Rolf clone that was aiming his sniper rifle at Johnny and Kevin, who were on the ground in front of the RED base. The shot captured his attention, and he pulled out his SMG.

"Go!" Nazz told Eddy.

Eddy took her advice and double-jumped onto the roof of the bridge. The BLU Rolf switched back to his sniper rifle and began to focus on Eddy.

Nazz pulled out her syringe gun and began to fire at the clone. The needles pricked him and made it harder for him to aim. Nazz ran up to him while firing and pulled out her bonesaw to kill him before he could shoot. She swung her saw and killed him, before he could switch to his kukri.

Nazz felt proud of herself, but like the BLU Ed, her victory was short. The BLU Kevin had come from behind her and fired his shotgun, then switched to his shovel to beat her to death. Nazz fought back with her bonesaw, but there was no hope for her. She couldn't take on a Soldier in a head-on battle. Before she died, she saw the BLU Eddy coming across the bridge with the RED intelligence

The real Eddy had just entered his base through the battlements. He looked back and saw the glowing outline of the BLU carrier in his base. He began to push himself to get to the intelligence room. He ran down the stairs closest to the RED main spawn room. Both Scouts were getting closer to the desk where they needed to secure the intelligence they stole.

Eddy entered the basement and ran straight ahead into the passageway leading into the intelligence room. He was under immense pressure. If he didn't get there first, they would lose, and losing another match wouldn't help their morale in the next few battles.

He entered the intelligence room and charged for desk. He still hadn't heard the announcement for his team's loss, so he still had a chance. He stopped behind the desk and placed the intelligence in a drawer. Eddy shut the drawer and fumbled with the key they were all assigned to lock it. Soon he had the key in and turned it, locking the drawer and securing the intelligence.

"Victory," the administrator's voice said.

"Yes!" Eddy yelled. His weapon began to glow red, but he wouldn't have anytime to use it on the BLUs who had barely lost. Instead, he just sat down in the chair behind the desk to take a break.

After a few seconds, he was teleported to the main spawn room with the other kids. They began to congratulate him on securing the intelligence, and gather their gear for the next mission.

Kevin grabbed the phone to call Jackson to come and pick them up.

"Jackson, it's Kevin again."

"Are you done now?" Jackson asked from the other phone.

"Yes."

"Alright. I'm on my way," he said. "Make sure you grab the intelligence before I get there." He hung up.

"Eddy, go get the briefcases," Kevin said.

"Why?" Eddy asked. He was enjoying his moment of glory and he didn't want to be interrupted.

"Jackson wants us to get it from get it before he gets here," he said. "Besides, it will also tell us why BLU cloned us."

"Why should I have to get it? I'm the one who stole it the most."

"I'll go get it," Double D said. He walked out of the spawn room to go get the intelligence they had acquired. He came back carrying all three briefcases in his left hand. "I took the liberty to read over them and indeed, it does tell why they cloned us.

"To paraphrase, the original BLU mercenaries felt it was too easy to fight us, so they made clones of us using our scattered body parts from Dustbowl, so that they wouldn't have to deal with us. They made 10 clones, one for each of us, including Plank.

"They are also working on more clones, so that they could switch them out during missions, like how they did at Badlands."

"At least we know how to deal with them," Kevin said. "We'll only have a real problem when they bring in multiple Eds."

"We'll just have to become better, and we'll defeat them when the time comes."

The kids walked outside and waited for Jackson to come. They only had to wait for a few minutes before he pulled up in his black van.

"So how'd it go?" Jackson said from his seat.

"We won," Ed said.

"Great. Now you start getting Australium for your teleporter," he said. "Hopefully , you can win at your next two missions, and get more money."

"Yes," Rolf said. "Rolf wishes to be victorious yet again, so that we may be closer to getting home."

The kids got into the van and they drove off to their next mission, Fastlane. Sadly, they lost there, but they did win at Freight, bringing in more funding for their teleporter.

They were on the way back to Jackson's home after their mission at Freight. Double D was in the passenger seat and was talking to Jackson about getting the Australium. The others were in the back talking amongst themselves.

"I'll go to the black market for the Australium once you've created the blueprints," Jackson said. "I don't want to have to buy more Australium than necessary. It only takes a few ounces to power a normal teleporter, but an inter-dimensional teleporter might take more or less, depending on the rest of the machine."

"I'll try to get them completed as quickly as possible, but I don't have many resources to learn from," Double D said.

"Maybe you can figure it out on Saturday," he said. "We do get weekends off."

"Of course," Double D said. He paused for a moment. "Jackson, you're skilled in a variety of weapons, right?"

"Yes. Knifes, guns, explosives, you name it."

"Then why'd you choose to be a Pyro? Surely, with your wide range of weapons, you could have been something more effective."

"Two reasons why. One, it was the only job they were hiring for, and two, I've always liked fire.

"When I was a kid, my friend invited me on a camp out. I was lucky enough that my bastard of a guardian let me go. At night, I was up close to fire for the first time. It was a dangerous thing, but it was a tool, as well. It gave us light, cooked our food, and kept animals away, it was amazing. My friend and I helped feed the fire and the embers that appeared when it was stirred taught me something. Even when it was controlled, it could easily become a deadly force.

"After I ran away, it helped keep me alive. People weren't always kind enough to give a poor kid food, so I had to do a little work of my own. There was a river a mile west, so I learned how to fish, and how to cook my catch. The fire helped me survive until I became a mercenary.

"I knew how to use fire as a tool, and I wanted to use it to its full potential. I learned how to make molotov cocktails, homemade flamethrowers, incendiary rounds, et cectera. Fire was there for me when no one else was. Call me crazy if you want, but I feel a special connection to it."

"Interesting," Double D said. "I'm going to begin examining the blueprints of my current teleporter to see if I can find anything I could use in the teleporter we'll be using to get home." He pulled out the blueprints and looked over them, while Jackson continued to drive back to his house.

It was nighttime when they Jackson parked behind the barn where the kids slept. He went inside the house to prepare dinner and the kids went inside the barn and put their gear away.

Eddy had finished putting his weapons and work clothes away and laid down on the pile of hay that he used as a bed.

"Man, these things are uncomfortable," he groaned. "Can't we get some actual beds or something? We have the money."

"Eddy, that money is going towards our teleporter to get home," Double D said, looking over blueprints for said teleporter.

"Come on," Eddy said. "We're gonna be here for a while, we might as well be comfortable."

"Dork's right," Kevin said. "As much as I want to get home, I don't think I can live like this for that long."

"Fine," Double D said. "We'll set aside some of the money we earn towards personal use, but the majority of it we'll use for materials." He continued to examine his blueprints.

"Good," Eddy said. "I could use a new bed."

"Ed needs comics," Ed said.

All of them, except Double D, began to talk about what they would buy with their hard earned paychecks. Sarah and Jimmy wanted new dolls, Kevin wanted to get a bike, Johnny and Plank were going to get new clothes to make their Captain Melonhead and Splinter the Wonder Wood outfits, Nazz was going to get new makeup, and Rolf thought about buying farming tools to try and bring crops to Jackson's poor excuse of a farm.

After some time, the kids went inside to see how much longer until Jackson's done cooking dinner. Double D was disappointed that he'd made little to no progress on thinking of a design on the teleporter.

They found that Jackson was almost done making dinner, pasta and leftover pizza. The kids sat down in the living room and watched TV until he finished. Double D searched through some of Jackson's books that might help him.

"Dinner's served," Jackson called from the kitchen.

The kids went in, got their food, and came back out to watch TV.

"Figure anything out?" Jackson asked Double D.

"No, "I just can't figure out how I can create an inter-dimensional teleporter with these blueprints. I've thought of every modification I can make to this, but we would still need a teleporter at the location where we need to go."

Jackson thought for a moment. "Can't you redo the targeting system?"

"What do you mean?"

"The teleporter you use for work has an entrance that searches for the teleporter exit, then sends the person through. If you could change what it searches for, maybe you can target your home dimension is."

"How do you know that?"

"I'm just guessing, but would it work?" he said.

"It's possible," Double D said. "But I would need materials to make a new teleporter to experiment with, so I could still use my current one for work."

"Why can't you just buy one?" Kevin asked.

"The blueprints were created by Engineer, and he didn't market his buildings, so I'd have to build it from scratch," Double D said.

"Well then," Jackson said, "Just get me a list of what you need, and I'll get them when next time I go into town."

"In the meantime, I'll have a look at the targeting portion of the schematics and see if I can adjust them to find our dimension."

After they had eaten, the kids went out to the barn to get ready for bed.

"Hey Sockhead," Eddy said. "Have ya figured out the plans for the teleporter?"

"Not exactly," Double D said. "But I'm close, in a sense."

"Good," Sarah said. "I really miss home."

Double D went into the stall that had his equipment and sat down to study the blueprints. The others laid down in the hay they call a bed, and went to sleep. With today's victories, they were one step closer to getting their machine built, and getting home.

AN: Hope you enjoy this chapter. Again, I'd appreciate a review and any suggestions on improvements. Nothing else I really have to add, so stay tuned for the next chapter.


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